Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev will face each other on Saturday 12th of December for the WBA, WBO, IBF, and IBO Heavyweight World Championships.The fight is held in the 02 Arena in London,UK, and it’s one of the most anticipated title matches of the second half of the year. Four world championships from the queen category will be up for grabs the host, Anthony Joshua, who is a British native from Watford, will be defending his championship belts against the Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev.
Judging from all the predictions, AJ is the clear favourite and he will try to K.O. his grim and insidious opponent, The Cobra, who was selected to challenge the champion by the IBF. Anthony Joshua regained his belts on 7th of December last year when he fought against the Mexican Andy Ruiz in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, whom he had lost his belts in a surprise TKO in the summer of 2019. From the Clash on the Dunes to the return at home,unfortunately the crowd of 80,000 spectators who always accompanied him in the meetings on English soil will be a distant memory due to the global pandemic situation. The 31-year-old Joshua will have to deal with a 39-year-old rival Pulev who last fought on 9th of November 2019, ruling out American Rydell Booker.
Anthony Joshua boasts a record of 23 wins (21 KO’s) and 1 loss, while Kubrat Pulev’s record is a dominating 28-1 (14 wins in the way of a knockout, the only defeat in 2014 when he fell short against the Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko in the match for the IBF World Heavyweight Championship). Will the winner of this contest then go on to challenge the British Tyson Fury, World Champion of the WBC, for the highly anticipated unification of the world titles in the heavyweight category? All boxing fans are asking for it, and the media coverage would be enormous.
Around 10:00 PM GMT Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev: World WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO heavyweight
Prelims,STARTING AT 6.00:
- Lawrence Okolie vs Nikodem Jezewski
- Hughie Fury vs Mariusz Wach
- Martin Bakole vs Sergey Kuzmin
- Macaulay McGowan vs Kieron Conway
- Florian Marku vs Alex Fearon
- Qais Ashfaq vs Ashley Lane
Is Joshua a clear favourite?
The 31-year-old Brit with Nigerian origins, Anthony Joshua, or AJ as many call him, is the odds favourite to win this fight. He has found a lot of success during his still-young career and his statistics do outshine his 39-year-old Bulgarian rival.
AJ’s 24 professional fights have included wins against top heavyweights like Vladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin, Dillian White and the former WBO champion Joseph Parker. If AJ manages to win against Pulev, the rumours have it that we would finally get to see the fight of the decades where Anthony Joshua would face the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury.
Big Clash-Big Bonuses
With a big clash like this comes a bunch of great bonuses from all bookmakers. The odds show AJ as the favourite to win is at odds around 1.10. Meanwhile, a win for the Cobra is offered at around 7.00. Almost always, the word ‘undefeated’ gets thrown around when talking about boxing betting odds.
Too many oddsmakers are willing to post low odds on a boxer, just because he’s won all of his fights. Even though it’s impressive to be undefeated as a pro, there are levels to the significance of this world. To determine whether the favourite really is the favourite, take a look at his previous opponents.
Boxing odds don’t always reflect the fact that someone only fought opponents with a shorter reach. And-O records can be deceiving, so betting on the opponent is the epitome of snatching the best boxing odds for your slips.
- Betting Tip by Betting: Over 10.5 rounds at odds around 3.2
Pulev, against Joshua,can we expect surprises?
39-year-old Kubrat Pulev is one of the best fighters in the category, even though the peak of his career seems to have passed. Pulev already had a title chance against Vladimir Klitschko in 2014, but was severely knocked out by Klitschko’s left hand in the fifth round.
To date, the defeat against the younger of the Klitschko brothers is the only loss in the career of the “Cobra”. Pulev has already won the European championship title on two occasions and he has hoisted himself high in the world rankings with several good performances. His most prestigious “scalp” is his win against Dereck Chisora, a very dangerous boxer who was a world-class challenger in his prime. Pulev is the underdog going against Joshua, but the champion has already shown his vulnerability against Ruiz, and with that comes a chance for the challenger too.
Joshua’s power could be the key to the match,as it has allowed the Brit to end matches with a knockout, even in fights where he seemed to be struggling. When Joshua and Ruiz met the first time, the heavy blows of the Mexican hurt Joshua properly for the first time in his career. Pulev can use that fight to prepare for Joshua, but putting the tactics that the Mexican used in practice is another story.