By: Sean Crose
He was once considered by some to be the big man in the heavyweight division, both literally and physically. Anthony Joshua was a statuesque, hard hitting Londoner who could literally sell out stadiums. Holding numerous heavyweight titles simultaneously, he was – for a short time, at least – the brightest of three shining divisional stars: himself, American Deontay Wilder, and fellow Brit Tyson Fury. What made Joshua particularly impressive was, after a stunning defeat to Andy Ruiz in his American debut, he changed styles in the rematch to defeat Ruiz handily. Known generally as a knockout artist up until that point, Joshua showed in the Ruiz rematch that he could add new wrinkles to his game.
Is seemed only natural that Joshua would take on Fury or Wilder – or both – at some point. It was not meant to be, however. For Joshua lost his titles to Oleksandr Usyk, then went on to lose to the Ukrainian for the second time in a rematch. In the meantime, Fury won a wonderous trilogy against Wilder, only to then be defeated twice by Usyk himself. Suffice to say a hoped for undisputed heavyweight title fight between Fury and Joshua fell through. Still, this spring, Team Joshua was still keen on seeing Joshua face Fury. What’s more, it looked like Fury might have still been keen on the fight himself. Last week, however, Fury let the world know via social media post, that he was retired and aimed to stay that way.
A dream deferred. The heavyweight division is, truth be told, experiencing a changing of the guard at the moment. Joshua, Fury and Wilder – the former three masters of the division – are all past their glory years. New blood is coming up – talented and exciting new blood. Even Usyk, the man who dusted Joshua and Fury, won’t be around much longer. The question, then is where to from here for Anthony Joshua? The man has had a great career and has made quite a bit of money for himself and his family. Boxing is tough. For instance, Joshua has recently been out of commission thanks to an injury to his elbow
Promoter Eddie Hearn plans on having Joshua fight this year, though, which means Joshua is clearly eager to keep going with his career. Who will he square off with, though? Joshua’s taken his share of shots throughout the course of his career. Such things need to be taken into consideration. Unless Fury changes his mind and decides to come back (and with the unpredictable Fury, one never knows), Joshua may feel pressure to battle one of the division’s young bucks – and that might not be the safest thing to do. Still, boxing is the sport where second acts do, in fact, occur. Perhaps Joshua will surprise the world.
