Anthony Joshua has a simple formula for deciding who enters the New Year as the world’s best heavyweight.
Count the belts, says Joshua, who has three of the acronym-sponsored titles
‘We’ve done it, we’ve unified it, in the space of 20-odd fights,” Joshua told Sky Sports this week.
Simple arithmetic, Joshua suggests, erodes Deontay Wilder’s claim on being the best. He has only one.
“He’s had 40 odd fights,’’ Joshua said. “How come he hasn’t managed to unify the division yet?’’
Joshua goes on to say: “I’ll let the people decide who they think is the real heavyweight champion right now.’’
Do some elementary subtraction, people, and you’ll have the answer to whom Joshua believes is the only answer. Joshua, however, never addresses Tyson Fury and his claim on being the heavyweight division champion, a line of succession traced to his unanimous decision over Waldimir Klitschko on Nov. 28, 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
An answer to who’s better, Fury or Wilder, looms on Feb. 22 in a rematch at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on ESPN/Fox’s pay-per-view. For now, it looks as if Joshua will either be sparring partner or a very prominent part of the audience for that one. He has offered to spar with Fury in training during the next several weeks. No word yet on whether that will in fact happen.
Meanwhile, Joshua appears to be positioning himself for an eventual fight with the winner.
If that happens to be Wilder, Joshua urges him to be part of history.
“We’re trying to achieve big things in boxing, and to add Wilder to my list would be an honor,” Joshua said.
Joshua also said Wilder would do more than land on the list. He’d land on the canvas. He says he would stop Wilder.
‘‘He wouldn’t be there to do that in the seventh round,’’ said Joshua, who added he would go after Wilder early in an attempt to eliminate further chances at landing his lethal right hand. “I would go in to knock him out.’’