The chief support to the Joshua-Takam heavyweight title fight, between Dillian Whyte and Robert Helenius promised plenty but sadly delivered very little. Whyte did far more work than Helenius, who was content to box on the back-foot and basically survive.
After 12 frustrating rounds – frustrating for the fans and no doubt for Whyte – the Londoner won via lopsided scores of 119-109 twice and 118-110 .Whyte is now 22-1(16). Helenius of Finland falls to 25-2(16).
Tonight in Cardiff on the big Joshua-Takam card, WBA super-flyweight champ Kal Yafai retained his title with a wide 12 round UD over a somewhat reluctant Sho Ishida of Japan. The Birmingham man, making the second defence of the title he won back in December of last year, won by a wide (and accurate) score of 118-110 on one card and a too close 116-112 on the other two cards. Yafai is now 23-0(14). Ishida, who was having his first fight outside of his homeland, is now 24-1(13).
As we are today, fans, most of them British, were getting ready for a heavyweight showdown in Cardiff, Wales back in October of 1993. Back then, Lennox Lewis was defending his WBC title (the one he had picked out of the garbage after Riddick Bowe unceremoniously placed it there rather than face Lewis in a return meeting of their 1988 Olympic clash) against British folk hero Frank Bruno.
Fans may have read about British promoter Eddie Hearn’s offer to WBC heavyweight king Deontay Wilder: take a (high paying) defence against London’s Dillian Whyte and then, if victorious, get the massive unification fight with WBA/IBF ruler Anthony Joshua.
Wilder initially balked at such a notion, as did his US promoter Lou DiBella; who stated how Whyte is “irrelevant in the career of Deontay Wilder.” But now, going by what “The Bronze Bomber” had to say to Sky Sports, things might well have changed. It seems Wilder – who must get past former champ Bermane Stiverne in a rematch next Saturday before he can even think about fighting anyone else – is now interested in getting it on with the once-beaten Whyte.
It’s a fight Bob Arum has expressed a good deal of interest in making and now, due to the WBO installing Terence Crawford as the mandatory challenger for WBO welter ruler Jeff Horn, the fight is a big step closer towards taking place.
As per a twitter message from the WBO: “Crawford is mandatory contender for Jeff Horn. Fight will have to be arranged within 90 days after Horn next optional defence.”
Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin signed a promotional deal with Tecate earlier this week, as his promoter Tom Loeffler tweeted. GGG and Loeffler were in Dallas to sign the deal and, according to Loeffler, to scout possible venues for Triple-G’s next fight.
Of course all fans hope and anticipate that Golovkin’s next fight will be a return showdown with Canelo Alvarez. This one is a rematch that simply has to happen, and the last we heard, it is being targeted for May of 2018. But where should the return super -fight take place?
Immediately after 2016 Olympic gold medal winner Joe Joyce had won his ambitiously matched pro debut, against experienced pro Ian Lewison, David Haye stated how his fighter would be capable of defeating reigning British heavyweight champ Sam Sexton, 24-3(9) in his very next fight.
Joyce, looking to be moved fast at age 32, could fight David Allen next instead, and Haye says he hopes either Sexton or Allen agrees to fight his new star next, ideally on the under-card of Haye-Bellew II on December 17. But Sexton’s trainer, Graham Everett, in speaking with Eastern Daily Press, says Haye’s claims of offering Sexton a “career-high pay day” are false.
Heavyweight legend Larry Holmes has heaped a ton of praise on new heavyweight star Anthony Joshua while at the same time he has surely annoyed a whole lot of Mike Tyson fans. Speaking recently and quoted by The Express, Holmes came out with the claim that prime-for-prime Joshua would KO Tyson.
With the fight, a rematch that will take place almost three years after their first encounter, just days away, both Deontay Wilder and Bermane Stiverne have their game-face very much on.
This much was evident during a recent teleconference call to further hype the November 4 rematch between the two that will contest Wilder’s WBC heavyweight crown (Stiverne of course being the man Wilder defeated to take the title back in January of 2015). Both men came across as somewhat irritable, Stiverne especially (Stiverne said he really doesn’t want to talk to anyone until after the fight; sure as he is that he will “get asked a whole lot of different questions after November 4”) and both punchers seem ready to rumble.
A poll launched (now removed without trace, for obvious reasons) by the folks at Sky Sports News, that asks the simply ridiculous question: Is Anthony Joshua Britain’s greatest ever heavyweight – has been derided by many people; including heavyweight great Lennox Lewis.
It’s a sign of the times that Joshua, a good fighter who still has many years ahead of him, is even having such a question asked of him at this, still very early stage in his career. Yes Joshua has that excellent win over a 41 year old Wladimir Klitschko, but does this, along with his current achievements, make such a question a valid one? Not a chance.