Anthony Joshua looked a lot like the AJ of old.
The former heavyweight champion overwhelmed capable Otto Wallin on Saturday night at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, beating him up, breaking him down and finally stopping him after five dominating rounds.
Joshua controlled the fight from the beginning, picking Wallin apart with his heavy jab and a variety of power punches to the head and body — and taking little in return — until the Swede’s trainer Joey Gamache decided his fighter had taken enough punishment.
Wallin (26-2, 14 KOs) gave Tyson Fury all he could handle in a unanimous decision loss in 2019 and had won six consecutive fights since. However, Joshua never gave him a chance to get anything going in what amounted to a blowout.
The punch that might’ve sealed Wallin’s fate was a big left hook that rocked him with about a minute to go in the final round. He survived but when he got back to his corner and Gamache gave him a good look, the fight was over.
The loser was cut below his right eye and on the bridge of his damaged nose by the end of the fight, which might’ve contributed to Gamache’s decision to stop the fight.
Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) has now won three consecutive bouts since he lost back-to-back meetings with Oleksandr Usyk, including a seventh-round knockout of Robert Helenius this past August.
However, on Saturday, he might’ve given his best performance since the days before Andy Ruiz Jr. stunned the boxing world by stopping him in seven rounds in 2019.
His victory not only puts him in a commanding position to fight once more for a major title. It seems as if this version of the 34-year-old from England is capable of beating anyone.
What might be next?
A planned showdown with Deontay Wilder in March is off the table after Joseph Parker’s one-sided decision over Wilder immediately before the Joshua-Wallin fight in Riyadh.
Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s longtime promoter, said afterward that he would pursue a matchup with unbeaten and fast-rising Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs), who stopped Mark De Mori in the first round on the same card.
Then, if things go well in that fight, he’ll have to wait to see how the Feb. 17 Fury-Usyk fight goes and what might follow. Fury and Usyk agreed to a two-way rematch clause.
That surely is OK with Joshua. He’s where he wants to be. He has momentum again after the disappointments against Usyk and he’s first in line to fight for a championship when things sort themselves out.
