For months now, Bob Arum has stated his strong belief that Kubrat Pulev, who he promotes, will defeat Anthony Joshua when the two finally fight; by KO. The Top Rank boss believes Pulev, “a very tough Bulgarian,” is too strong for Joshua and that he hits a lot harder than Andy Ruiz. Ruiz of course shattered Joshua’s chin a little over a year ago, stopping him in seven rounds to take the belts.
Now, with plenty of people getting excited over the fact that Joshua and rival heavyweight champ Tyson Fury (Fury being the number-one of the division in the opinion of just about everyone) have “agreed” to financial terms for a two-fight deal,” Arum is urging caution. Arum himself is not at all convinced Fury versus Joshua is a fight that is in any way set.
Speaking last night with talkSPORT’s Fight Night show, Arum said in his opinion last week’s announcement regarding Fury Vs. Joshua was not “real news.”
“I didn’t look at it as being real news,” Arum said. “Joshua has a fight before the end of the year with my guy – Kubrat Pulev – a very tough Bulgarian. And Tyson has a third fight to do with Wilder and that is not an easy fight. So again, sure, if they come through those fights why wouldn’t we get together and do a two-fight deal for Fury and Joshua? Joshua has a chinny chin chin. And if he can get knocked out by Andy Ruiz, who can’t punch…. Look at Andy’s record, he fought all of his fights with us.”
It’s true that while Ruiz has stopped 22 of the 33 opponents he has beaten, he has never had as high-profile a KO as the one he scored over Joshua – with guys like Siarhei Liakhovich (a faded version), Raphael Zumbano Love, Franklin Lawrence and Kevin Johnson taking him the distance (although to be fair, Johnson is one hell of a tough guy to KO). So is Joshua “chinny,” or did Ruiz simply have a great night while Joshua had a very bad night last June?
Joshua has been down in only two of his fights – with Ruiz and with Wladimir Klitschko – yet he has been wobbled by Dillian Whyte, and Alexander Povetkin hit and hurt AJ in the early going of their fight. But is it fair to say Joshua is “chinny?” Arum sure thinks so. If Arum is right and Puev does a job on Joshua, there will be no more debate. And the boxing world will lose out on the biggest British super-fight ever.
