Promoter Eddie Hearn admits Otto Wallin isn’t exactly an ideal stylistic matchup for Anthony Joshua.
At the same time, the Matchroom head feels his ace client should be able to dominate a fighter of Wallin’s standing.
London’s Joshua, the former unified heavyweight titlist, is set to fight a third time this year when he takes on Sweden’s Wallin in the feature bout of stacked fight card on Dec. 23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In a recent interview, Hearn denied a popular suggestion that Joshua is particularly vulnerable to left-handed fighters, such as Wallin.
A large part of what has driven that sentiment are the two straight losses Joshua suffered to Oleksandr Usyk, the southpaw heavyweight who currently holds three of the four major titles in the division.
Hearn pointed out that Usyk is simply a generational talent, regardless of stance.
“When we say he has an issue with a southpaw, he had an issue with Oleksandr Usyk, you know, who is a pound-for-pound, maybe number one,” Hearn told FightHubTV.
Hearn, however, made it clear that Wallin is bound to present some trouble to Joshua. He also stressed that Joshua needs to be “aggressive.” Joshua has been criticized in his last several fights for not fighting with the same level of assertiveness he was known for earlier in his career.
“But Wallin’s good,” Hearn said. “They’ve sparred rounds before. AJ beat him in the amateurs—it’s a long time ago, yeah, but really, ideally, you don’t really want to be fighting a southpaw, but you should be dealing with Otto Walliin. And we have enough faith in AJ’s ability to take that fight, win that fight. But it will be tricky. And he has to be aggressive in that fight. I believe he will stop him.”
Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) is coming off a seventh-round knockout of Robert Helenius in August.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.