Anthony Joshua faces one of his toughest tests to date this March against Joseph Parker in a fight Johnny Nelson believes has to happen.
Nelson claims the heavyweight scene is as exciting as it has been in years, and that Tyson Fury is the man to thank for that.
Speaking to The Sportsman, Nelson said “the one man who opened up the division is Tyson Fury. Because of him we’re seeing great fights like this one, in a fight that is going to have to see both men be at the very top of their game.”
In 2017, Britain’s Anthony Joshua came up against some of his biggest challenges since taking up the sport of boxing, peaking with an 11th round stoppage of former great Wladimir Klitschko, in what Johnny Nelson called “a career defining fight”.
“This fight is Joseph Parker’s defining fight”, claimed Nelson. “We saw AJ against Wladimir last year, the biggest fight of his career, where he was tested, where we saw if he had the metal to compete at the very top level. Now we’re going to see if Parker can do that as well. As a boxer, you need these career defining fights, and this is definitely his.”
The division’s other current kingpin, WBC Champion Deontay Wilder, will surely be an interested spectator of Parker Joshua, but Nelson believes neither fighter will face the American until at least the end of the year.
“First of all, Wilder has a very tough fight, probably his career defining fight, against Luis Ortiz in March” said Nelson. “If he gets through that, which he might not, then we could see the two winners face at the end of this year, or next year.”
You can see the whole interview with Johnny Nelson here.
