Lewis: ‘A long road ahead’ for Joshua despite victory over Wallin

Published 24/12/2023 at 01:20 GMT

Anthony Joshua made it three wins from three for 2023 after destroying Otto Wallin in the headline fight at the Day of Reckoning on Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is continuing his comeback after two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, and speaking after the fight, former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis said he was unable to ascertain Joshua’s progress.

Britain’s Anthony Joshua celebrates after defeating Sweden’s Otto Wallin during their heavyweight boxing match at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh on December 23, 2023.

Image credit: Getty Images

Lennox Lewis says Anthony Joshua has “a long road ahead” before knowing if the champion is “back or not”.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn described the fighter as “back” and “the best heavyweight” in the world after he made light work of Otto Wallin on Saturday night in Riyadh.

The Briton, like Lewis a former three-belt champion in the division, delivered such punishment to Wallin that the Swede was unable to return to the fight for the sixth round.

For Joshua it marked a third consecutive win, each in 2023, after back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk that lost him his belts. However, a proposed fight against Deontay Wilder in 2024 looks to be in doubt after the American suffered a one-sided defeat to Joseph Parker in the preceding fight.

Joshua was more reserved than Hearn when asked about his performance, saying he would leave the verdict to new trainer Ben Davison, and speaking to TNT Sports Box Office, Lewis said there was not enough evidence to go on given Wallin showed little in the ring.

He said: “I couldn’t really judge with this fight if he’s back or not. He definitely looked good, he did what he was supposed to do. Taking out a guy he’s taken out before.

“The guy didn’t have any definition in his body. I don’t know if he worked hard or was in training camp or whatever, and I didn’t see him punching or throwing any punches that connected because AJ looked good after the fight, like a movie star, like he wasn’t even in a fight.

“So I think [the fight is] good for his mental state and everybody is saying ‘he’s back’, but there’s still a long road ahead. He still has to go up against Fury. [Zhilei] Zhang from China would be a great fight as well.”

Another former world champion, Carl Frampton, was more impressed, adding: “AJ looked really good, I think Otto Wallin is a good fighter and a tricky fighter, but he made a tricky fighter look really ordinary. [That was] down to AJ and his performance, how dominant he was.

“He targeted the body really well. I think it was little bits of the old AJ but he was calm.”

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