Have we now lost, forever, a Deontay Wilder-Anthony Joshua showdown? A Tyson Fury-Joshua showdown? Certainly, with Joshua now having lost his unbeaten record, neither fight can ever be as big as it would have been (the perils of taking too much time to make the super-fights). The three men who each laid a claim to being the best heavyweight on the planet – Joshua, Wilder and Fury – now realise their paths may never cross (although we should still get that Wilder-Fury return; unless Tom Schwarz can pull off something similar to what Andy Ruiz did last night when he fights Fury on June 15th).
We may never know now who is the better fighter, the better puncher, the better man: Wilder, Fury or Joshua. Not surprisingly, Wilder has put the boot in on the fallen AJ, writing on social media how Joshua was “never a true champion.”
“He wasn’t a true champion. His whole career was consisted of lies, contradictions and gifts. Facts, and now we know who was running from who!!!!,” Wilder wrote.
Perhaps quite surprisingly, Fury was far more classy with his own written message to the former WBA/IBF/WBO champ:
“We have our back and forths but @anthonyjoshua changed his stars through life. Heavyweight boxing, these things happen. Rest up, recover, regroup and come again,” Fury wrote.
But can Joshua come again? Some times in this sport, one loss can forever change a fighter, ruin him even. It’s an absolutely needless things to say that Joshua HAS to win that rematch with Ruiz (already being eyed for November or December in the UK according to Eddie Hearn, although these are of course embryonic days), because if not, where does he go?
As for Wilder and Fury, both men have to make sure that they can avoid slipping on the type of massive banana skin AJ was unable to avoid last night. Wilder faces a potentially dangerous night against Luis Ortiz in a return fight, while Fury faces the little-known (and very quiet) Schwarz in his next fight. Could we see another big heavyweight upset before this year is over?