Upon reading a story from another outlet this morning I couldn’t help but agree.
The heavyweight division in boxing is perhaps as exciting as it has been in years at the moment with Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua recognized as the three men at the top of it.
Largely, Fury got this ball rolling when he blew things wide open when he beat Klitschko a few years back.
People are now genuinely interested in boxing again who might not have watched the sport otherwise.
Perhaps for a chance to see who might emerge as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world out of these three men.
A symbol and status in sport still as special and powerful as ever.
Until they’ve all fought one another however, we simply won’t transparently be able to say who really is the best heavyweight in the world today.
Granted, we can all have our personal opinions but until then — we’ll have to wait for the proof to be in the pudding as they say.
One thing that has been proved however is former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Lennox Lewis’ legacy and status in the sport of boxing.
One of Britain’s all time best fighters ever.
Possibly even an all-time top ten contender in the great heavyweight fighters of boxing history.
But to think he’s been told ‘f*** off mate’ in the media by leading promoter Eddie Hearn is a bit of an insult to this legacy in my opinion.
Particularly with Hearn like Lewis being a fellow Brit himself.
Sure, trash talk is fair game for fighters of today but when you go after established legends of the sport who have already cemented their legacies that is off limits in my view.
Yes, business is business and nutty stuff is always said in boxing but to attack legends of the sport from years gone by seems a bit too far.
The dispute between the two stems from Lewis at the end of the day feeling that Joshua needs to step up and fight the best fighters in the world now.
Again, promoter of Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn, who in my opinion is the best promoter in boxing at the moment and one of the good guys in the sport will say something like ah, well, who did Lennox fight at this stage of his career compared to Joshua?
Fair point (to an extent) but at the same time — that was a completely different era and Lewis fought the best of his time that was available to him.
He really did. He endlessly chased the big fights of his time.
Go back and check the old footage of him calling out Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe (who’m he never got into the ring in the end) early on in his pro career.
Contrarily, Anthony Johsua has not yet faced the best competition of his particular era in the form of heavyweight rivals Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder.
To their credit — Fury and Wilder have faced one another already in an epic night for boxing that transported their individual stars to new levels last month in a twelve round bout in LA for the WBC world championship.
If they fight again next in 2019 as expected, and Joshua entirely scraps his proposed Wembley date for April 13th in favor of a more low key US fight in May against Jarrell Miller, he (Joshua) could easily find himself third in the pecking order of who people are genuinely interested in seeing fight in the heavyweight division.
At the end of the day Fury and Wilder’s brands are only going to grow through fighting one another and boxing fans want to see the fight again after the controversial result of it being a draw last time out.
History has a funny way of repeating itself in boxing and when Lennox Lewis fought Evander Holyfield to a draw first time round in their bout — the rematch was much bigger.
The same will happen with Wilder and Fury this year.
A fight that was first made in 48 hours at the time last year too. Business doesn’t have to be difficult, clearly.
If they can fight each another again in a huge US pay per view that would be much bigger this time round why wouldn’t they?
Yet, Joshua can’t seem to make a fight with either due to perceived issues his promoter Eddie Hearn has in making both fights at present.
If he’s not careful, Joshua could be left behind this year in terms of him being the division’s biggest world star as heavyweight boxing moves on with Fury and Wilder seemingly willing to fight one another again and give boxing fans what they care about — fighters fighting the best when fans want to see them fight.
Not in a few years time. Times have changed now. Ultimately, time waits for no man.
The heavyweight landscape is totally different to what it was following Fury and Wilder’s battle last month.
In many ways, those two men are now the main guys in heavyweight boxing.
Between them (combined) they now have more leverage in any business negotiation than Joshua has on his own.
If they can keep fighting one another (i.e. a rematch this year) their stars are only going to grow further.
Lets hope egos and childish quibbles over money can be set aside and Joshua can fight either Fury or Wilder in 2019.
