Otto Wallin is still looking to solidify his position amongst the best of the world’s heavyweights and having faced and sparred some of them he has a great perspective on which ones hit hardest.
Wallin catapulted himself into the upper echelons of the division with his solid showing against Tyson Fury at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in September 2019. He pushed Fury all the way, eventually losing out on a unanimous points decision but not before opening up a savage cut that could potentially have stopped the fight in the third round.
Next up, the Swedish southpaw takes on former unified cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev on September 30 in Turkey for a WBA regional title.
Speaking to Seconds Out, he was asked about who hits hardest out of the big men he has fought or sparred including Fury, Anthony Joshua and Zhilei Zhang.
“When I was in Denmark I sparred a lot with Micki Nielsen, he was a cruiserweight actually, he was a really big puncher. But I would say probably Joshua, he was a really good puncher, this was 2016.”
Although picking Joshua as the biggest puncher he also saved praise for Zhang, but left Fury out of the conversation completely.
“I sparred Zhang a few times, he was also a good puncher.”
He was then asked where a win against Gassier puts him.
“I think I will be in a great position, it will be really improved, I’ll be a promotional free agent so I think that’s a great position to be in, it’s very rare for a good heavyweight.”
It’s a good match-up between two avoided fighters that well could announce the arrival of another legitimate contender on the scene.