Wait long by the river and the bodies of your enemies will float by.??Sun Tzu
How?s that for wisdom? Not bad, eh? A little optimistic, in my view, but I guess the advice is good as long as you pick the right river?.and outlive everybody who made the list you scrawled on that dark night, drunk on cheap bourbon and listening for gunfire in the distance. I don?t know if Sun Tzu drank. I don?t think that?s important right now. He went down in history regardless of any substance misuse problems he may or may not have suffered with.
But Sun was on to something in that piece of wisdom. Don?t discount it. If Anthony Joshua hasn?t read it, then he must have recently wondered at another, perhaps simpler version. See, with all the enormous cash contracts lurching around the boxing bank accounts nowadays, waiting is all someone like AJ can do in order to fight the right people.
Some say that Joshua doesn?t want to fight Deontay Wilder because he is afraid. Some say that Joshua would fight a polar bear in a ten by ten septic tank for five bucks and an old copy of Penthouse. But those people know nothing. Let?s go to the source of the truth and stop listening to the gibberings of a thousand lunatics. Here?s what AJ?s right hand man, Eddie Hearn, said about AJ?s future yesterday:
?There have been conversations [with Wilder?s team]. I?m not going to say too much because it didn?t go down too well last time. I don?t know what anyone?s going to do. I don?t know if Wilder will rematch Fury, I don?t know if AJ will fight Wilder, if AJ will fight Fury. Or AJ will fight the winner of Whyte vs. Chisora, or if AJ will fight Usyk or Miller here [in New York] but the ultimate focus is Wilder. That is what we want. They said AJ?s ducking the fight and now they?ve said AJ?s begging for the fight, but you can?t be doing both. But literally anything could happen. We could fight Fury. It would [be massive]. But worldwide the bigger fight is Wilder and he (Joshua) wants the belts, he wants to be undisputed and you?re not going to get many opportunities to be undisputed so that?s really what he?s focusing on,?
Clear? Me neither. Other than going back over the same old Wilder ground?money?money?.errm?but?errr..we really want to fight?just give us money?Eddie is probably tearing his thick and lustrous black hair out while he floats from meeting to meeting in a valuable car the likes of you or I can only dream of throwing sticks at.
Who really wants to fight? No idea.
I could argue that Usyk won?t fight Joshua in 2019. Not many would disagree. Wilder might stick to a lucrative Fury rematch and then see what happens. Fury will want to beat Wilder up, so he?s not looking past the rematch either. Whyte is cannon fodder for the top three. Ditto Chisora. Miller is fringe at best.
Joshua isn?t going to lose sleep this Christmas, that much I do know. Whether he?s soaking up the Barbados rays with people who make Santa?s purchasing power look underwhelming, or hunkered down in Luton, he?ll find himself in the happy position of the man they all want. To him they are targets at a range. Staid and predictable, and it doesn?t matter who is next.
Sun Tzu was kind of right. If Joshua waits long enough by the boxing river his enemies will float by, it?s just a question of by then, will anyone care?
