Izuchukwu OkosiBritish-Nigerian former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua may have made a mistake with his choice of a rival for his next heavyweight fight as he gets set to fight American Otto Wallin later this month.
The fight billed as one of the big fights slated for December 23 which is on the same card as Deontay Wilder v Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia.
The Joshua camp are desirous to have him recover the titles he lost, a situation which also is a major reason why his stock as a brand ambassador to some conglomerates went a bit down.
But Jarrell Miller who was billed to face Joshua in 2019 before he pulled out having been diagnosed of testing positive to banned substances sees the timing of Joshua’s fight differently and considers Wallin the wrong opponent for the Anglo-Nigerian.
Wallin, who boasts a 26-1 record and is coming off the back of impressive wins over fighters including Murat Gassiev and Dominic Breazeale.
“I feel honestly that [Joshua] might have made a mistake with picking Otto Wallin,’ the American, Miller told SecondsOut.
”Even though Otto Wallin is not a one-punch knockout kind of guy, he is durable, he comes to fight, he is not a quitter and it is going to be a tough fight for [Joshua]. I don’t think that it is going to be easy, at all.
”The mental mind state that [Joshua]has, is he going to hold up?
‘ ‘When he fights in the UK, he has a little more oomph in his step a little bit, but when he fights outside of the UK, we don’t get the same fiery person, the playing ground is going to be a little bit more even out in Saudi.
”I wish all of the luck to Otto Wallin, I want to really be the one to knock out [Joshua], but may the best man win, it is what it is.’
Miller and Joshua have been engaged in a bitter feud ever since their ill-fated clash.
The pair almost came to blows at the press conference event for ‘Day of Reckoning’, which will also include the American’s fight with Daniel Dubois.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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