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Who Will Anthony Joshua Fight Next? The Clock is Ticking

The fight slated for this coming Saturday (Aug. 12) at the O2 Arena in London between Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte would have been a rubber match of sorts. Whyte defeated Joshua in the amateurs. That was back in 2009. Joshua returned the favor in 2015, stopping the “Bodysnatcher” in the seventh round after a few anxious moments.
That match-up died today. An adverse finding turned up in Whyte’s VADA test and he was disqualified. According to various reports, however, Anthony Joshua will still compete on Aug. 12 if promoter Eddie Hearn can find a suitable opponent at this late hour.
Hearn is understandably reluctant to scratch the entire card which included a 12-round contest between undefeated heavyweights Filip Hrgovic and Demsey McKean, plus appearances by the immensely popular Johnny “Romford Bull” Fisher, by Manchester’s 12-0 Campbell Hatton, the son of former two-division title-holder Ricky Hatton, and by the well-known heavyweight campaigner Derek Chisora who is matched against U.S. import Gerald Washington.
The easiest road for Hearn would be to replace Dillian Whyte with one of the other heavyweights on the card – Hrgovic, McKean, Chisora, or Washington, but there would be a tremendous clamor for refunds if he chose the 39-year-old Chisora, who has lost four of his last five, or, heaven forbid, the unexceptional 41-year-old Washington who has been stopped five times.
If the fans could make the pick, Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs) would get the nod in a landslide – he would bring more to the table than Dillian Whyte – but that isn’t going to happen. Hearn doesn’t want Joshua to lose, and the six-foot-six Croatian, ranked #1 by the IBF, would likely be favored. That leaves the Australian, McKean (22-0, 14 KOs), who looks very beatable, notwithstanding the fact that he is a southpaw. The roadblock here, however, is that bumping McKean into the main event would likely cost Hearn a pretty penny in step-aside money to Hrgovic and he’s been down that road before.
Among the fighters who were quick to throw their hat in the ring is Otto Wallin who has been treading water since losing a unanimous decision to Tyson Fury in 2019.
This match makes a lot of sense. Wallin is promoted by Dmitriy Salita who has a history with Eddie Hearn. Salita brought Jermaine Franklin to England twice, for Matchroom-promoted fights with Whyte and Joshua. The Matchroom honcho had some input into Salita’s last promotion, a June card in Detroit featuring Claressa Shields that was livestreamed on DAZN. Moreover, Salita had preliminary discussions with Hearn regarding a Joshua-Wallin fight back in December.
Wallin (25-1, 16 KOs) has some drawbacks, however, Foremost, the 32-year-old Swede is a southpaw, as is Oleksandr Usyk who boxed rings around Anthony Joshua twice. Also, he has a style that can make an opponent look bad even when that opponent is winning. Fury overcame a very nasty cut to conquer Wallin by scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112, but in truth, Wallin made the Gypsy King look ordinary.
Other names that have been bandied around are Agit Kabayal, Martin Bakole, and Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, and to that list we would throw out the name Michael Hunter. Chances are that when you read this, Eddie Hearn will have already found his man or will have pulled the plug on the entire show.
As for Dillian Whyte, he predictably wailed that he is the victim here. “I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that I have not taken the reported substance, in this camp or at any point in my life,” said Whyte on his social media platform. “I am completely innocent and ask to be given the time to go through the process of proving this without anybody jumping to conclusions or trial by media.”
Those with no sympathy for Whyte note that he is a serial offender. In 2012, the British boxer served a suspension when the banned substance methylhexaneamine was found in his system. In 2016, several days before his match with Oscar Rivas, it came out that he had tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone in a test administered by the UK anti-doping agency, but the British Boxing Board of Control allowed the fight to go forward.
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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.
Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.
It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.
Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.
Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.
Bustillo Wins Rematch
In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.
Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.
Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.
After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.
Other Bouts
In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.
A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.
SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other. There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.
It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.
Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.
Co-Feature
In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.
Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.
Other Bouts of Note
The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.
The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.
In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.
Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing
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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.
In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.
In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.
Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”
He meant it as a rhetorical question.
Semi-Windup
Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.
A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.
Also
Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.
In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.
The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.
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