Former heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder & Anthony Joshua have a deal set for them to meet on March 9th in Saudi Arabia, provided they’re both victorious this month in their fights on December 23rd in Riyadh.
The former WBC champion Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) faces Joseph Parker (33-3, 23 KOs), and Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) battles Otto Wallin (26-1, 14 KOs) on December 23rd.
It’s still pretty iffy due to how shaky Joshua & Wilder have been in the last three years. Wilder just turned 38, and he’s only fought one round in two years since suffering losses to Tyson Fury.
As old and past it as Wilder & Joshua are, they could both lose, and the Saudis could be stuck with a low-level fight between Wallin & Parker, neither of which are considered top-level heavyweights.
Mike Coppinger of ESPN reports the deal for Joshua vs. Wilder on March 9 in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua’s risky tune-up
The 34-year-old Joshua has won his last two fights since losing consecutive contests to Oleksandr Usyk. In his last couple of fights, AJ has taken confidence boosters against Robert Helenius & Jermaine Franklin and looked reasonably good, but not like his old self, unfortunately.
Joshua will be fighting the tall 6’5 1/2″ southpaw Wallin, who gave Tyson Fury pure hell in their fight in 2019 and should have won if the ringside doctor had stopped the contest due to a deep cut that ‘The Gypsy King’ suffered early in the contest.
Some believe that if Wallin had been the one that had suffered the cut, the fight would have been halted, but due to Fury’s popularity, the match was allowed to play out to the end, with him bleeding nonstop.
For this fight, Joshua will have his new coach, Ben Davison, in his corner in place of Derrick James. Davison is known for teaching defensive tactics, so it’s likely that Joshua will be moving a lot and trying to stay out of the way of Wallin’s shots. Wallin isn’t a big puncher, but with Joshua’s fragile chin, he doesn’t need to be to knock him out.
Wilder vs. Parker
Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder will be fighting for the first time in over a year since October 2022 against the former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker in a twelve round fight.
Despite the inactivity, age, and two mugging jobs against a mauling, rabbit-punching Tyson Fury, Deontay still has formidable power in his right hand and will be dangerous for Parker, who doesn’t have the best chin.
Parker is likely to fight defensively, moving around, and using the same wrestling & leaning tactics that Fury used to wear Deontay down.
If Parker copies Fury’s style completely, we could see some rabbit punches thrown because those were the ones that seemed to incapacitate Wilder.
The inactivity that Deontay has had could impair his performance if the fight goes past four rounds. He gassed out after the fourth in his trilogy match with Fury in 2021.
Much of the interest the boxing public once had in seeing AJ & Deontay mix it up has evaporated due to their defeats, inactivity, and lackluster opposition.
Joshua pretty much stopped fighting the opposition that fans wanted to see him fight after his close call with 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
