Two-time heavyweight champion of the world Hasim Rahman has labelled Anthony Joshua-Otto Wallin as a ‘trap’ fight for the Brit, who is continuing to hunt down both Deontay Wilder and a third stint as titlist.
Joshua bounced back from consecutive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk with wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius this year, with the help of new trainer Derrick James.
However, ‘AJ’ will now fight under a fourth different trainer in five contests as Ben Davison prepares him to take on the Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin.
Wallin gave Tyson Fury one of his most arduous challenges, cutting ‘The Gypsy King’ to the point where the now WBC champion needed forty-seven stitches, but losing on the cards in a bloody battle.
Since then, Wallin has gained a reputation as a bogeyman of sorts, and scored a career-best win over Murat Gassiev back in September to emerge as a player amongst those at the peak of the heavyweight division.
In an interview with Pro Boxing Fans, Rahman, who famously knocked out Lennox Lewis in 2001 to claim the WBC and IBF titles, admitted that he didn’t understand why Joshua would opt to face Wallin, a notoriously scrappy and under-appreciated opponent.
“I don’t really understand why Joshua took that fight, that’s really not a fight that I think you can look good in. That is one of them trap fights. I’m going to be watching that fight because Wallin is definitely a guy that can make you look bad.”
“I think he [Joshua] will win, I just don’t think that it is set up for him to shine.”
Joshua-Wallin will top the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card on December 23, which also features Deontay Wilder-Joseph Parker, Jai Opetaia-Ellis Zorro, Dmitry Bivol-Lyndon Arthur and Daniel Dubois-Jarrell Miller.