Anthony Joshua v Kubrat Pulev | Predictions & Betting Tips
Anthony Joshua now knows who he will be stepping into the ring against next. It won’t of course, be Wladimir Klitschko. So many people’s hopes of a rematch between the two of them were dashed when Klitschko announced in August that he was hanging up his gloves. Joshua had stopped Klitschko in the 11th round of an epic battle back in April, which will go down as one of the greatest fights in the history of the sport. So no wonder everyone wanted a rematch.
But it’s not happening and Joshua will be standing toe to toe with Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev next. The fight will be in Cardiff on October 28th and Pulev is the mandatory challenger for Joshua’s IBF title. Joshua is the current IBF and WBA heavyweight champion. There have been plenty of mixed messages from the Pulev camp, with the fighter saying that the bout was being arranged without consulting him and that he wouldn’t have enough time to get ready while turning around and saying that he will be ready for the fight and Joshua won’t stand a chance.
Bookmakers think otherwise as Anthony Joshua is 1/33 odds-on favourite in the ante post market. This is probably going to be a lopsided affair in Joshua’s title defence. Joshua won the IBF heavyweight belt against Charles Marin back in April 2016 and has defended is successfully three times already, taking out Eric Molina and Dominic Breazeale along with Wladimir Klitschko of course.
Pulev has a 25-1 career record with 13 of those victories coming via a knockout. He won the vacant WBA Intercontinental heavyweight title against Samuel Peter in 2016, the same year in which he beat Briton Dereck Chisora for the vacant European heavyweight title. The 36-year-old isn’t a name that has really been the highlight of many cards but he did fight Wladimir Klitschko back in November 2014 and was knocked out in the fifth round. That is his only defeat during his career and he is 12/1 to beat Joshua.
Joshua has a 19-0 career record and he has finished each of those fights within the distance too. Joshua to win this is the 7th round if an 8/1 punt while if you want to go with a bit of a spread instead then Joshua in Rounds 5-8 fetches a nice early price of 7/5. It should be easy for him and that’s highlighted by the fact that Sky Bet have a 1/8 price on Joshua by KO TKO or Disqualification against Pulev.
The Bulgarian shouldn’t be a huge threat to Joshua, despite winning each of his last five fights to make himself the IBF mandatory challenger. Joshua is going to go through this so as not to vacate the belt, and after this will go onto a tougher fight against Luis Ortiz to defend his WBA title. The big build up now that Joshua is working too, will likely happen next summer and that will be a showdown with the WBC title holder Deontay Wilder.