By Scott Christ
Miss anything on Thursday? Let’s get you caught up.
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Generally speaking, the boxing world has three top heavyweights right now in Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury. Dillian Whyte talks enough to make it four, so let’s say four.
Thursday was another dumbass day in this division’s top tier. Eddie Hearn continues to say they want to do Joshua-Wilder this year, but also continues to say it’s probably not happening. No shit, Sherlock. Wilder, who’s going to fight May 18 against Dominic Breazeale, is going to LeAvE a PaTh Of DeStRUcTiOn and what have you. He repeated his old “one name, one face” bit, but didn’t talk about catching a body this time.
The WBC want to do a Tyson Fury-Dillian Whyte eliminator, which is absolutely laughable, they know good and damn well that Tyson Fury is not fighting an eliminator. He walked away from a big money ordered rematch with Wilder! This year! Very recently! Just more of the WBC jerking Whyte around, in all reality, and that man has paid good money via sanctioning fees for his ranking with them.
Believe it or not, I really try to look on the bright side of things with boxing, as frustrating as the sport can get.
“Hey,” I’ll say, “Andy Ruiz Jr isn’t the worst challenger for Anthony Joshua, especially on short notice.” Or I’ll go, “Hey, I know Wilder-Breazeale wasn’t what anyone wanted, but at least it figures to end explosively either way.”
But as fans we’re at a point where we’ve been pushed to potentially consider ourselves lucky if we get, like, Wilder vs Luis Ortiz II later this year. “It could be worse!” will be our trying-to-stay-positive cry if/when that gets made. “The first fight was pretty fun!”
It’s all garbage. The top of this division is garbage unlike any other division in the sport. The welterweight situation gets lots of flak — and rightfully so — for not being able to get a Crawford-Spence/Spence-Crawford fight done, but this crap takes the cake.
You’ve got Bob Arum thinking he’s going to put Tyson Fury on a $5 app against Tom Schwarz and turn him into a two-million-buy pay-per-view headliner against Wilder for a rematch, a fight that did 325K the first time. You’ve got Wilder and his team turning down crazy money offers from DAZN, then talking about legacy. You’ve got Joshua and his team with their constant “It ain’t us!” routine, which generally in boxing suggests at least part of a problem is you. You’ve got the WBC seemingly doing everything they can to avoid actually giving Dillian Whyte a title shot.
At least Fury just openly doesn’t care about any of this. In his mind, he’s the lineal champion, he’s the proven best, and he was robbed in December when the judges gave him a draw against Wilder. He’s content. And Whyte I can’t really blame because he’s got a solid enough case. Sure, he turned down the Joshua rematch in April, but he gave his reason, he didn’t think he had enough time to prepare. He has moved on, only to be hit with a load of other blatant stupidity.
But with Joshua and Wilder especially, it has gotten very old, very quickly this year. I don’t care what team you think you’re on that you believe one side or the other is in the right. Enough, from both of them. Really, it’s enough.
And obviously if they say anything today, we’ll be right on it.
Quick Hits
- Not everything in the heavyweight division sucks! Daniel Dubois will be facing Nathan Gorman for the vacant British title on July 13, which will stream live on ESPN+ in the US and air on BT Sport in the UK. The original order was Dubois-Joe Joyce, but Joyce has stepped aside and this is the replacement. It’s a good replacement, a meeting of promising young fighters who are unbeaten and bring very different skill sets to the fight.
- The British Boxing Board of Control also laid out their plans for all the British titles at the moment.
- Gennadiy Golovkin’s team put out a video where Golovkin and new trainer Johnathon Banks talk about starting fresh. It’s a good video. Unfortunately it’s a video leading to a fight with Steve Rolls.
- We mentioned yesterday that the WBO refused!!! to sanction Erick Ituarte as a title challenger for Oscar Valdez on June 8. My guess is still that there just wasn’t enough time to “convince” the WBO to suddenly give Ituarte a top 15 ranking out of nowhere. Jason Sanchez, their No. 13-ranked contender, is stepping in on a month’s notice. He’d already been training and everything, so that part should be fine. It’s a big chance for him.
- Top Rank is putting together a summer fight between Jose Benavidez Jr and Luis Collazo, which is a matchup I do like quite a bit.
- Matchroom’s May 25 DAZN show, which was to be headlined by Oleksandr Usyk vs Carlos Takam, is still on and staying put in Oxon Hill, Maryland, with Devin Haney moved to the main event against Antonio Moran. Haney says he wants people to say that he fought all the top guys when his career is over.
- Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo got all animated at the presser to announce their June 23 rematch.
Article courtesy of Scott Christ & SB- Nation
Photo by Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
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