Yesterday, following the announcement that Wladimir Klitsckho had retired, we speculated over who Anthony Joshua?s next opponent would be.
We assumed that Joshua would be forced into a mandatory defence of his IBF world heavyweight belt against Kubrat Pulev.
It appears that we assumed wrongly.
Although the IBF have set a deadline of December 2nd for Joshua to have defended against Pulev, it appears that a mandatory defence of his WBA belt takes precedence.
The WBA are insisting that Joshua takes on their mandatory challenger, the Cuban fighter Luis Ortiz, with the pair having 30 days from yesterday to agree the fight.
Ortiz, 38-years-of age has 27 wins to his name with 23 of those wins coming by knockout.
With the re-match against Klitschko having been planned for November 11th in Las Vegas, it seems that Ortiz?s camp have no problems fulfilling that option with Ortiz manager, Jay Jimenez remarking to the media,
‘We are next. We have no problem fighting on that date of November 11th in Las Vegas. Our mandatory takes precedent over Pulev’s and they know that.’
It looks like the authorities are pushing Joshua into a corner, there?s no way he can meet both obligations and it looks to be a case of which of the belts he would prefer to relinquish.
Boxing politics rules again!
Joshua Being Pushed Into a Corner
