Anthony Joshua looked a lot like the AJ of yesteryear.
The former heavyweight champion outclassed the capable Otto Wallin on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, punching him, knocking him down and ultimately stopping him after five dominant rounds.
Joshua controlled the fight from the start, destroying Wallin with his strong jab and a variety of powerful blows to the head and body, and receiving little in return, until the Swede’s trainer, Joey Gamache, decided that his fighter had received enough punishment.
Wallin (26-2, 14 KOs) gave Tyson Fury all he could handle in a unanimous decision loss in 2019 and had won six straight fights since. However, Joshua never gave him a chance to do anything in what amounted to a beating.
The blow that could have sealed Wallin’s fate was a big left hook that rocked him with about a minute left in the final round. He survived but when he returned to his corner and Gamache took a good look at him, the fight was over.
The loser suffered a cut under his right eye and on the bridge of his nose damaged at the end of the fight, which could have contributed to Gamache’s decision to stop the fight.
Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) has now won three straight fights since losing back-to-back encounters with Oleksandr Usyk, including a seventh-round knockout of Robert Helenius last August.
However, on Saturday he might have given his best performance since the days before Andy Ruiz Jr. shocked the boxing world by stopping him in seven rounds in 2019.
His victory not only puts him in a commanding position to fight once again for a major title. It seems that this version of the 34-year-old Englishman is capable of beating anyone.
What could be next?
A planned showdown with Deontay Wilder in March is ruled out after Joseph Parker’s unilateral decision on Wilder immediately before the Joshua-Wallin fight in Riyadh.
Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s longtime promoter, said afterward that he would seek a showdown with undefeated and rapidly rising Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs), who stopped Mark De Mori in the first round on the same card.
Then, if things go well in that fight, you’ll have to wait to see how the Fury-Usyk fight on February 17 goes and what might follow. Fury and Usyk agreed to a two-way rematch clause.
Surely that’s fine with Joshua. He is where he wants to be. He has momentum again after the disappointments against Usyk and will be first in line to fight for a championship when things settle down.
