To cap the year off for boxing fans round the world, unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was booked to take on contender; Kubrat Pulev for all his championship belts, and right off the bat, this match seemed potentially unexciting.
Not to be mistaken, Aj is a heck of a fighter and a national hero to both the Nigerian and British audience, but him talking on a 39 year old boxer who looks to be past his prime seems like one of those long matches that would be riddled with defensive tactics, and no real exciting offence to make this a classic. Also, no one really expects Aj to lose to Pulev. It’s almost unfathomable. However, one well-placed punch from Kulev could secure him the victory, and victory is something Pulev has promised to escape with.
During the traditional weigh in that is meant to take place a day before the match, Pulev and his team pulled off a rather interesting stunt, one that now has the boxing universe looking forward to this match. They resulted to taunting and harassing the champion.
Not only was Pulev’s team rowdy, with three of them being restrained by security from entering the premise, Pulev himself who had been cordial all this while, even during their press conference where he explicitly described his respect for Joshua, decided to be disrespectful.
According to boxing prompter, Eddie Hearn, who was present on stage during the weigh in, he stated that Pulev had said to Joshua; “I will beat you tomorrow, you are nothing, I’m better than you… I will end you tomorrow.”
Interesting facts about the Joshua Vs Pulev fight
Pulev is a 39 year old boxer with 29 fights under his belt, he has 28 wins and 1 loss which came at the hands of Wladimir Klistchko. A fun fact here is that Anthony Joshua was in Klitshchko’s camp when he was preparing to face Pulev, which he mentioned as a reason he knows how he would defeat Pulev. Another fun fact is that Anthony Joshua did in fact face Klitschko and defeated him back in 2017.
Aj vs Pulev has been three years in the making, however health issues for Pulev saw them postpone the match up until this year when their schedules finally aligned.
Anthony Joshua is 8 years younger than Pulev, at 31, and he has 24 fights under his belt, 23 wins and 1 loss, that loss coming at the hands of Andy Ruiz.
Despite the pandemic, fan attendance has been permitted for this bout, however only a maximum of 1000 people would be allowed in.
Odds maker have placed an odd of 6 to 1 in favor of Joshua, so if you are a risk taker, you can bet on Pulev with promise of a massive return should he win, if not just go for the safe bet in Joshua, he is the overwhelming favorite.
Estimated earnings for Anthony Joshua stands at £10 million, while the estimated earning for Pulev stands at £3 million. To put it in context, Joshua is set to make N4 billion for a single fight, while Pulev is set to make N1 billion. So, you might want to enroll your kid into a boxing academy.
And finally, AJ comes into this fight light. Asides his rematch against Andy Ruiz, AJ’s usual weight is somewhere around 260-270 pounds, but for the fight he is coming in at 240.8 pounds. For the Ruiz fight he came in at 237 pounds. As he hopes to use more speed for this fight.
Leave a reply