A Steady Decline in Popularity – Is It Anthony Joshua’s Fault?

[AdSense-A]

By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White

Anthony Joshua, the 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist and Britain’s “Golden Boy”, is getting a serious amount of stick over here in the UK and all around the World in fact…

Whether that be on boxing forums, news websites, podcasts or amidst general chit-chat between fans of the sport.

The reason for that, is because “AJ” just hasn’t been involved in a big fight since he defeated Klitschko back in 2017.

Ultimately though, everyone has their favorite fighters and in the Heavyweight division things look like the peoples’ favorite is shifting and changing direction.

With two of the biggest names in the division meeting last December – Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder – boxing fans were all left a bit surprised in all honesty, because the fight got made so quickly and because Fury made that fight happen after such a long lay-off after his battles with addiction and mental health.

On the other hand, negotiations between Wilder and “AJ” seem to have been going on and off for ages now, with each fighter and their promotional teams blaming one another for the fight never happening.

Fans of the sport want to see one thing: big fights!

The fighters themselves however, want big fights too – to cement their legacy within the sport – but they also want big paydays and every little psychological advantage they can get.

For whatever reason, the big fights for “AJ” just haven’t happened yet – besides the thriller of a fight that he had with Wladimir Klitschko – despite this, Joshua is still holding all of the belts, besides one – the WBC.

Anthony Joshua is in a difficult position, because both Wilder and Fury want to get their share of both fame and fortune at this moment in time too; so, they’re highly likely to rematch with one another at some point next year.

This fact alone prevents “AJ” from having another career defining fight because both Wilder and Fury are doing their best to “freeze him out” and essentially take attention away from him and his claim to superiority in the heavyweight division.

So my question is – is it Anthony Joshua’s own fault that he’s losing popularity?

Or is it the fact that negotiations between Fury and Wilder have made his attempt at winning the WBC strap near impossible?

Whatever you think on this situation, there’s been a clear shift in peoples’ response to Anthony Joshua, with a large majority of the crowd at the O2 arena boo’ing him when he grabbed the microphone after Dillian Whyte’s KO victory over Dereck Chisora.

I can’t help but feel that Joshua’s lack of “exciting” fights, alongside Tyson Fury’s dramatic performance against Deontay Wilder and his comeback from such a dark place, has shifted people’s thoughts on the heavyweight scene and has ended up with “AJ” losing favour with a lot of his fans.

Tyler “The Miracle Man” White will be competing in a four man boxing tournament on February 1st in Henley-on-Thames, if you are free on that date then please contact Tyler to get in touch for tickets to the event!

Check out Tyler “The Miracle Man” White who is part of a new podcast called “British Boxing Talk” on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]