Anthony Joshua admits ‘there is no future’ if he fails to beat Otto Wallin… as Deontay Wilder super-fight lays await
ANTHONY JOSHUA admits his reconstruction career is on the line as he tries to do a demolition job on Otto Wallin.
The 34-year-old London 2012 legend has lost his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world titles in 2022, after back-to-back Oleksandr Usyk defeats.
And the rebuilding Watford hero has given up on his dream of becoming undisputed boss with father time, as well as top opponents, mounting up against him.
But he has a long-overdue barnstormer with former WBC king Deontay Wilder booked for March 9 - as long as he can come through his Swedish two-fight amateur rival on Saturday.
Win and he is back at boxing’s top table. Lose and - as the former bricklayer admits - all his hard labour will have turned to dust.
“I’m looking to do a demolition job,” he said. “100 per cent. "I am looking to do a good job. I will do a good job.
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“I have purse focus on Saturday. That's where my heart and soul, every cell in my body is fully focussed toward Otto Wallin and doing what I know I can do.
“It’s not hard to stay focused, I made that commitment in my life to stay fully locked in.
“I will perform and do my job but I can definitely also window shop in my life but I also have to say that this is the checkpoint and if I don't get past this then there is no future.”
This weekend is Joshua’s third fight in the trillion-dollar kingdom, so no prize fighter is more aware or enriched by the crazy cash swirling around the desert.
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But - after coming across as brooding and tense in public media events (but a good laugh with SunSport on Tuesday night) - he says all the oil-money in the world won’t make him slip up.
And with the polite boxing ambassador staying home in north London and the spiteful short-tempered beast in the Riyadh ring, Wallin might be in for his hat-trick hiding.
“I’m here to fight,” he growled. “I’m not here to party or get caught up in the glitz and glamour. I want to fight, I want to perform well.
“I put pressure on myself so of course I am tense, because I want to perform and I want to win.
"I have that urge to win and I want to hurt my opponent as well.”
