Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Fenster View Post
The winner is obligated to face the WBO and IBF mandatory, it's already a given that the winner will dump the WBO (Haymon doesn't deal with them regardless) allowing Uysk to fight for the vacant title in February. Whoever wins has to face Pulev (IBF) next or dump that too.

Joshua can't be frozen out as Hearn will have the WBO title regardless and all the top heavyweights... barring Wilder, Fury and Ruiz of course. However, should Joshua lose he's going to need a year or so to ease back regardless.

If he manages to lose twice in a row to the Michelin Man his commercial worth is going to take a gigantic nosedive. There's nothing like two embarrassing defeats in a row to have bandwagon fans deserting en masse and leaving a massively popular fighter suddenly not so popular. He's going to go from Wembley to the O2 and the only chance he's going to get to fight for what the public consider the real title is if Fury beats Wilder twice in a row. He's made lots of money and when you add the fact that he's comfortable financially to the fact that he'll be mentally fucked by the double loss it's a legitimate question as to whether he'll ever be able to get himself back to the top. It definitely won't happen anytime soon.
Should Ruiz win, a fight vs Wilder is THE dream heavyweight matchup America has been craving, the demographic couldn't be better. If Joshua loses he wont have to worry about that side of the street for a year or two regardless.

However, if he does decide to continue, "downgrade" to the 02 and gets a couple of comeback wins his blip against Buster will swiftly be written off. The greatest fighters in history have had a bogey man.