Otto Wallin is still in the running for a mega money fight with Anthony Joshua in 2023 – that’s according to his promoter, Dmitriy Salita.
Joshua is yet to confirm a date or opponent for his comeback fight, which is expected to take place in the spring of next year. He has been out of the ring since his second consecutive defeat to now-champion, Oleksandr Usyk.
And Salita told SunSport this week that he has had conversations which indicate Wallin is still very much in contention for selection, and that his charge has his eyes set on only the very biggest fights in the heavyweight division.
“I had discussions with Eddie about Otto for a significant amount of time and as late as last week. From what I understand it’s really up to AJ. I believe he wants to place himself back in the heavyweight picture.”
“Both Otto and AJ want a shot at Fury. By the numbers Otto landed more punches on Fury than anyone else ever.”
“I believe the winner of that fight will have legitimate claim to challenge Fury probably after his fight with Oleksandr Usyk.”
Wallin will be a familiar name to British fight fans due to his meeting with Tyson Fury in 2019, where he gave ‘The Gypsy King’ all he could handle and inflicted a bad cut on Fury before being beaten on the judges scorecards.
The Swede was also scheduled to face Dillian Whyte in London last year, however Whyte withdrew from the bout due to a reported shoulder injury. ‘The Bodysnatcher is another name in the mix for ‘AJ’, but Salita thinks it isn’t worth it.
“A [Whyte] fight with Joshua would be something like Roy Jones vs Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor, big names but not much behind it at this point … Whyte needs an impressive showing against someone credible to show that he still got the skills to pay the bills at an elite heavyweight level.”
As for Joshua, many will feel he needs to first select a training team before looking at any potential opponents, with him reportedly touring gyms again after defeat in his rematch with Usyk in Jeddah. Whether or not things are already decided behind the scenes is unclear.