Boxing News – June 27, 2019

4 lBOXING NEWSlJUNE 27, 2019 http://www.boxingnewsonline.net

EDITOR’S LETTER

GOLDEN ERA

Coming

next time

l WE look ahead

to the domestic

triple-header

in Manchester,

featuring

Lawrence

Okolie-Jack

Massey, Felix

Cash-Jack Cullen

and Anthony

Fowler-Brian

Rose.

l LUIS RESTO

sits down with

us in New York

and discusses

his haunted

past.

l WE speak

to renowned

boxing

broadcaster

Paul Dempsey

about his life

and career.

l AVAILABLE

to download

via iTunes and

Google Play

from July 2 and

the print edition

is in stores on

July 4.

On the

website

l READ about

how former

heavyweight

king Wladimir

Klitschko was

rescued from a

flaming boat on

the high seas.

l FOR all the

day’s boxing

news, read Elliot

Worsell’s Boxing

News At Five.

Why the heavyweight division might already be in the midst of one of its best ever periods

HE heavyweight
golden era, the one
we were promised,
the one we’ve all
been waiting for,
might have sneaked
up and arrived
without us even
knowing it. After all,
the history books
are only kind once
they’ve been written
and maybe, when
we eventually look
back and put pen
to paper, Tyson
Fury upsetting
longstanding
champion Wladimir
Klitschko in 2015 will be pinpointed as
the moment when the good times started
to roll.
Within a few weeks of that
momentous changing of the guard, two
young unbeaten British heavyweights
engaged in a bad-tempered slugfest
inside London’s O2 Arena as Anthony
Joshua survived an early scare to pummel
the resistance out of Dillian Whyte
in seven rounds. Fury soon lost his
balance at the top, and his three belts,
without stepping foot in the ring. Over in
America, loose-screwed WBC champion
Deontay Wilder started his own tightrope
dance while cannoning the likes of Eric
Molina, Johann Duhaupas and Artur
Szpilka into the air.
In New Zealand, Joseph Parker
picked up the WBO title with a tight

and contentious victory over Andy Ruiz

Jnr, while Joshua flattened all-comers

to set up a spine-tingling showdown

with Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, which

added the WBA strap to Anthony’s IBF

championship at Wembley Stadium. It

would be the first of four consecutive

stadium fights for “AJ” as he halted a

game Carlos Takam in 10, outpointed

Parker in a unification tussle over 12

before emerging from an early crisis

to knock out Alexander Povetkin in a

seriously entertaining battle.

Meanwhile, back at the end of 2016,

Whyte was stamping his feet in the dirt

and beginning his own charge back. He

outscored Dereck Chisora in a brutal

12-rounder and would later go on to

flatten Lucas Browne with a punch of

the ages. Then he survived a hellacious

struggle with Parker on a London show

that was stolen by a breathtaking war

between Chisora and Takam on the

undercard. Whyte screamed for a shot at

Wilder in the aftermath but “The Bronze

Bomber” had busied himself with a

topsy-turvy early Fight of 2018 contender

with Luis Ortiz in Brooklyn.

As we grumbled and groaned that

Joshua was not fighting Wilder, back

came Fury, after taking a few years to

dust himself off, and took on Deontay

himself. What followed was a contest

destined to be remembered as one of the

most dramatic in heavyweight history as

Fury – with a serious lack of big-match

practice – boxed beautifully for large

sections before peeling the back of his

own skull from the canvas in the final

round, only for the judges to call a draw.

Whyte knocked out Chisora in yet

another exciting scrap, then turned down

a title shot against Joshua because the

offer was not right for him. In stepped

Jarrell Miller, who scored an almost

laughable hat-trick of failed drug tests,

leaving the door open for Ruiz Jnr,

all cuddly and fluffy and harmless, to

re-enter the scene. Then someone

fed him after midnight, Ruiz went all

Gremlin, and savaged Joshua in seven

thrilling rounds.

So here we are. Joshua and Ruiz look

set to go again in a beyond intriguing

sequel at the end of the year, while

Wilder – still crazy after all these years

but also still champion – plots rematches

with both Ortiz and Fury over the next

12 months. Not only that, someone

new is preparing to enter the scene. The

all-conquering cruiserweight champion,

Oleksandr Usyk, has been installed as the

WBO mandatory contender (due to his

vast achievements in the division below)

and the winner of Ruiz-Joshua II will be

ordered to face him.

The last time an undisputed

cruiserweight champion moved to

heavyweight was in 1988 when Evander

Holyfield took his first steps in the land

of the giants. Within three years he was

a key orchestrator of one of the greatest

decades in the division’s illustrious

history. For Usyk, however, that great era

might already be in place.

T

Matt

Christie

@MattCBoxingNews

Editor

Cover photography

MARK ROBINSON/MATCHROOM &

AMANDA WESTCOT T/SHOWTIME

& MIKEY WILLIAMS/TOP RANK

& ACTION IMAGES/ANDREW

COULDRIDGE (2)

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Photo: ACTION IMAGES/ANDREW COULDRIDGE

BIG MEN, BIG EXCITEMENT:

Ruiz [right] and Joshua

are two of the main

protagonists in a

thrilling heavyweight

division