Nigeria-born British boxer Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua is on the verge of losing his unified heavyweight boxing championship belt. If this happen, it won't have anything to do with a loss inside the ring but based on him being forced to defend his belt by IBF and WBA at the same time.
The 27year-old Joshua holds the IBF and WBA titles, and both organizations were on board to allow him to defend them in a rematch against former longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko, whom Joshua stopped in dramatic fashion in the 11th round of the leading fight of the year contender on April 29 before 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London. With the win, Joshua retained his IBF version of the title and won the vacant WBA belt.
Plans were in the works for a Joshua-Klitschko rematch to take place on Nov. 11 in Las Vegas even though 41year-old Klitschko had not fully commit to the bout for which he had a contractual right to. On Wednesday however, Klitschko surprised many when he elected to pass on the rematch and announced his retirement from boxing after a decorated 21-year career as one of the greatest heavyweight champions in history.
With Klitschko out of the way, Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) is now being pressed by the two organizations to make different mandatory defenses next, if not he would have to vacate one of the belts or be stripped unless something can be worked out.
The IBF gave its blessing to the proposed Joshua-Klitschko rematch several weeks ago but stipulated that if Joshua did not face Klitschko in his next fight, he would have to face its mandatory challenger, Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs), 36, of Bulgaria, whose only loss was by fourth-round stoppage to Klitschko in the 2014 knockout of the year.
On Wednesday, hours after Klitschko's retirement announcement, the WBA also chimed in. It ordered Joshua to begin negotiations with its No. 1 contender (and former interim titlist) Luis "King Kong" Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs), 36, a big-punching Cuban southpaw who defected and fights out of Miami.
The WBA had previously ordered the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko to face Ortiz, but it had signed off on the rematch. With the rematch not happening, it sent both camps a letter ordering the mandatory fight and gave the Joshua and Ortiz camps 30 days to make a deal, or a purse bid will be ordered.
The WBA's letter pointed out that it had originally ordered the winner of the April 29 Joshua-Klitschko fight to face Luis Ortiz within 120 days of the fight. It had agreed to allow the rematch, but with it off the table, the WBA wrote that since the original resolution "95 days of that period have already passed and the fight should take place by Aug. 27. In light of the above, this committee is granting 30 days to negotiate beginning Aug. 3, 2017 and will close at the end of the business day Sept. 3, 2017. The fight should take place by Oct. 31, 2017."
Feelers have it that if Joshua has to pick one belt to keep, Joshua will most likely hang on to the IBF title he won in April 2016 by second-round knockout of Charles Martin and which he has defended three times against Dominic Breazeale, Eric Molina and the aforementioned Wladimir Klitschko. Also, a fight with Pulev figures to be a much easier fight than one against Ortiz, a massive puncher who has been routinely avoided by the division's best.
Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn, has already spoken to Pulev promoter Kalle Sauerland about making the fight and is moving in the direction to finalize that match.
"When the IBF cleared the Klitschko rematch it was under the proviso that if it's not Klitschko it must be Pulev, so we've already got talks in place with Kalle Sauerland," Hearn said to a reporter.
"Part of me is quite pleased we can move forward and draw a line under this. There was always the worry with Klitschko's age that we could announce the rematch and he could get injured in camp, various bits and pieces like that."
Whatever the decision, one thing that is certain is that AJ has come to stay and hopefully will rule the heavyweight category for sometime if his antecedent is anything to go by.
