Just when heavyweight boxing fans thought they had everything they ever wanted to eat, along comes another delicious dish on this all-you-can-eat ring buffet.
The enormous investment in the sport from Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority in recent months has been quite incredible – resulting in fights which had been impossible to make, happening thick and fast.
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Last October we had lineal heavyweight king Tyson Fury scraping past Francis Ngannou in their crossover fight to kick off Riyadh Season. Then in December that enormous ‘Day of Reckoning’ card featuring Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder among others.
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Then in March it was Joshua blasting out Ngannou in incredible style, and next on May 18 we have that massive unification fight pitting Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk for all of the heavyweight marbles.
Then that 5 on 5 Eddie Hearn vs Frank Warren card on June 1 includes Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang and Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois. Well if all that weren’t enough, there is MORE.
Deontay Wilder vs Jared Anderson next?
Turki Alalshikh – Chairman of the GEA and the mastermind behind this incredible boom for the sport’s marquee weight class – has announced he wants one more huge fight at heavyweight this summer. And it would be an absolute beauty.
His Excellency wants to put Wilder – assuming he comes through unscathed against Zhang on June 1 – up against exciting young Top Rank prospect Jared Anderson. The bout would take place on that enormous Terence Crawford vs Ismail Madrimov show in Los Angeles on August 3
The Los Angeles show of course brings a fascinating new wrinkle to Riyadh Season – it’s the first time Alalshikh has brought all of that Saudi investment to US shores for a show. And pitting the best veteran US heavy against the best young US heavy would add a ton more interest to an already fascinating show.
Explosive vet vs exciting youngster
The 24-year-old Anderson – who combines freakish athletic ability with a smart boxing brain and real power – recently improved to 17-0 (15 KOs) with an easy decision win over the disappointing Ryad Merhy in Texas.
Wilder (43-3-1) meanwhile is coming off that hugely disappointing loss to Joseph Parker last December. He had fought just one round (a KO of Robert Helenius) in two years before that.
So while it would be unusual to see an elite heavyweight out twice in less than three months, being active might be a good thing for the 38-year-old Wilder as Father Time starts to catch up with him.
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For now the bout remains something of a dream, an ‘if’ rather than ‘done’. Wilder would need to come through against Zhang, and likely with an impressive early stoppage or knockout, to make another big fight reality just a couple of months later.
