Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua is “definitely punching harder than ever before,” and the promoter of the WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champ also told Sky Sports how he is “a million per cent convinced” AJ does a “demolition job” on both Kubrat Pulev and Tyson Fury.
Hearn revealed to Sky Sports how Joshua and he exchanged text messages, with Hearn texting his fighter with the message that said “you’re going to steamroll through these guys,” to which Joshua replied to Hearn – “STEAMROLL!” Hearn is excited about the desire Joshua has got to score big knockouts.
“He knows Fury is an astounding fighter and it’s going to be very difficult. But you can ask him for yourself, I believe he has bad intentions in those fights and I believe he expects to. I believe he knocks out Kubrat Pulev and Tyson Fury,” Hearn said. “I think he’s ready to start doing a demolition job on these guys. I think he’s shown, coming back from the Andy Ruiz fight, that he has the ability to box and move. That’s in the arsenal now. But he still loves knocking people out. I’ve never seen him so excited to fight Pulev and Fury. That is what he’s got and he has bad intentions to do a demolition job on these people and I’m one million percent convinced he does it.”
As everyone agrees, the winner of the Fury-Joshua fight is THE best heavyweight in the world, no doubt. And if Joshua did go out there and “steamroll” Fury, or “do a demolition job” on Fury, fans would be mightily impressed. But can he do it? Can Joshua KO Pulev, a tough veteran who has been stopped just once (by a prime Wladimir Klitschko)?
Joshua has not scored a KO since his September 2018 stoppage win over Alexander Povetkin (a win that perhaps looks even more impressive in light of how Povetkin, who took Klitschko the distance, wrecked Dillian Whyte last month), and his fans are hoping Hearn is right – that AJ will get back to knocking people out as soon as he fights again. Of course, Pulev amd Fury have different ideas, and bad intentions of their own.
Hearn is right when he says Joshua has looked awesome in his recent training drills, his power and sheer physical strength evident. But can AJ deal with the enormous boxing skill of Fury? Will Joshua be able to hit Fury often enough and clean enough to demolish him? Hopefully, we will get our answers next year. Unless Pulev pulls the upset in December.