ANTHONY JOSHUA VS OTTO WALLIN - FULL PREVIEW

Anthony Joshua is days away from a battle that will shape his 2024, as he eyes both a mega fight with Deontay Wilder, and the opportunity to become 3x world champion.

Sure, Joshua-Wilder may not die even in defeat. Amongst a gallery of warriors, it is the Saudi’s very own Mona Lisa. A duel desired by boxing fans since their first link in 2016.

However professional loss number four would no doubt scratch the sparkle. This makes Saturday’s fight one of Joshua’s most important.

And it is a fight filled with jeopardy. Wallin is tough, fundamentally neat, and certainly not threatened by what Joshua promises to deliver. He is, of course, a southpaw too.

Joshua’s history with southpaws is frantic, and his struggles have been there for all to see.

Let’s not bother to sit and raise questions that might suggest Wallin is as thorny a task as Oleksandr Usyk. Even still, I’m sure Joshua will have some worries of his own.

On the other hand, the Brit definitely won’t have to stress about the threat of Wallin being a big puncher. Whilst he may tricky, you would like to bet that Joshua could eat what he has.

Do that, work the body, and then head upstairs with straight rights and left hooks, and Wallin will no doubt feel the heat.

Wallin has jibed at Joshua being mentally weak, referring quite obviously to his monologue after defeat number two to Usyk, as he stood a man broken by the weight of expectation.

Yet it is his emotional superfluity that make him the character he is. Unplug that version of Anthony Joshua, and you are left with a colourless, vapid, fighting robot.

If we are going to see the resurgence of the personality who stuck British boxing’s foot back in the world door, then we will no doubt need one who is charged with an intensity.

Bring that intensity, under a new training setup, and we may well get the Joshua 2.0 that we have been waiting for. If we do, it should be a simple night’s work against an opponent like Wallin.