Anthony Joshua rolled back the years with a dominant stoppage of Otto Wallin, but his plans for a huge fight with Deontay Wilder in 2024 have been derailed.
While a spiteful and aggressive Joshua finally looked much more like the fighter of old and took care of business by dominating a bloodied Wallin and forcing his retirement after five rounds on the so-called ‘Day of Reckoning’ in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, Wilder could not hold up his end of the bargain as he was thoroughly beaten by Joseph Parker to leave arrangements for a long-awaited meeting between the former world champions in March in tatters.
Wilder – fighting for the first time in 14 months and for only the second time since the epic conclusion to his iconic trilogy with Tyson Fury in 2021 – was dominated by Parker in a huge upset in the co-main event, never really getting going and deservedly losing by a wide margin on the scorecards 118-111, 118-110 and 120-108.
One judge scored every single round to the determined New Zealander, who, after receiving plenty of advice from friend and training partner Fury, executed the perfect game plan against his fellow former world champion under the watchful eye of top trainer Andy Lee to upset the apple cart and restate his own credentials in boxing’s blue-riband division.
It was a result that not only ruins the Joshua-Wilder fight and will potentially lead to talk of a rematch between Joshua and Parker, who previously fought in Cardiff in 2018 with Parker becoming the first man ever to take Joshua the distance as a professional but losing his WBO belt on points, but also leaves huge question marks over the 38-year-old Wilder’s very future in the sport as he appeared to leave the door firmly open to possible retirement.
Filip Hrgovic could now well be Joshua’s next challenge instead, with Croatia’s 2016 Olympic bronze medalist having demolished the hopelessly overmatched Australian Mark de Mori in the first round of a total mismatch earlier in Riyadh on Saturday.
Hrgovic is currently the mandatory challenger for the IBF heavyweight title held at the moment by Oleksandr Usyk, while Joshua will be No2 in those rankings.
The IBF belt will be on the line when Usyk and Fury finally meet in their mammoth undisputed clash in February, but it is then expected to be vacated with the winner of Usyk-Fury likely to seek a rematch instead of facing mandatory Hrgovic first.
On Saturday’s stacked undercard, Dmitry Bivol successfully defended his WBA light-heavyweight title for the 11th time and also added the IBO belt to his collection with a dominant points win over Manchester’s Lyndon Arthur, setting up a likely blockbuster undisputed showdown between the winner of next month’s rescheduled bout between unified WBC, IBF and WBO champion Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith in Canada.
Daniel Dubois also made a winning return to the ring following his controversial world title defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in Poland earlier this year as he produced a dramatic late stoppage of the trash-talking American heavyweight Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller.
Former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia provided a ruthless first-round knockout of previously unbeaten Londoner Ellis Zorro.
Russian heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov was stunned in his first career defeat against reigning two-time European champion Agit Kabayel, while ‘Cuban Flash’ Frank Sanchez opened a memorable night with a seventh-round stoppage of experienced New Zealander Junior Fa.
