‘All good things to those who wait,’ so says the old adage. We fight fans, who have had no choice but to wait for the massive heavyweight fights we want to see – top of the list being a Deontay Wilder-Anthony Joshua unification showdown – are hoping those words ring true.
Never has the ability to display patience been such a necessity for a boxing fan, yet we fight junkies retain the belief that the super fights DO still happen, they do still get made – eventually. Sure, there have been exceptions (see the must-see Lennox Lewis vs Riddick Bowe rumble that we never actually gotto see), but still, even in this somewhat jaded, everyone thinks they know everything internet age, it can still be terrific being a lover of The Noble Art.
And 2020 could prove to be some big year for the big men of the sport, as well as for those fans who are especially devoted to the heavyweight division. It now seems we will see a return clash between WBC champ Wilder and proud lineal king Tyson Fury next year (various reports telling us the two men who gave us 2018’s most dramatic fight have agreed terms to do it again), and the winner of that one will surely have nowhere else to go but into a for all the marbles, once and for all shootout with Joshua (providing of course AJ hasn’t lost in the meantime, and Andy Ruiz may or may not have something to say about that tonight.)
And IF we do get to see this massive explosion of a heavyweight unification some time in 2020, we will have waited around three years since talk of a Wilder-Joshua fight began. That’s just about how long we fight fans had to wait for the epic, some say best fight of all time, Hagler-Hearns war. That never to be forgotten classic more than proved to be worth waiting for, and here’s hoping fans who were rewarded for refusing to come close to giving up on that blockbuster will be equally rewarded by Wilder and Joshua or Joshua and Fury next year.
We’re an externally optimistic bunch, we fight fans, and we’re not all hoping for the worst. The big, big fights still happen in time; even if it seems to take more time these days.
Let’s all stay patient, for at least another year.