A tentative framework is starting to form around what the heavyweight title picture could look like for the rest of the year. Deontay Wilder’s camp has reported that they have been in negotiations with Joseph Parker for a unification bout sometime late this summer while it is starting to look like Wladimir Klitschko is going to exercise his rematch clause after all. His second shot at Anthony Joshua would happen in the fall.
There could be no possible complaints about this route for the division, but I do wonder how it could possibly work with all the mandatories waiting for the three titlists. Deontay Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) has been quite stupidly mandated by the WBC to rematch Bermane Stiverne and Hughie Fury is Joseph Parker’s (23-0, 18 KOs) WBO mandatory challenger. These two might actually be easy to work out though. Stiverne would probably like the WBC tradition of a step aside payday more than actually getting back in there against Wilder and Hughie Fury has already had his chance, dropping out of the Parker fight just two weeks out.
What I am really having a hard time with is the idea that Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) can rematch Wladimir Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) and keep his IBF belt without fighting his mandatory in Kubrat Pulev. Joshua’s WBA mandatory is Luis Ortiz, but for whatever reason they seem completely disinterested in actually ordering that fight. The IBF, however, is consistently strict. It would be dramatically out of character for them to let Joshua skip the Pulev bout. Everyone has their price, however, and maybe the money and prestige that comes from having Anthony Joshua as their heavyweight titlist will be enough to get them to loosen up for a fight.
What seems absolutely certain is that if somehow these fights come off without any titles being stripped, the winners certainly would not be able to match up as their next fight if the goal is heavyweight unification. will need to be met.
