Wallin Looks Back At The Joshua Defeat – ‘He Was Just Better’

Otto Wallin looked back at his loss to Anthony Joshua as he was stopped after the fifth round.

Coming into the fight, Wallin hoped to pull off a huge upset. The southpaw Wallin only had one defeat heading into the fight against Tyson Fury. After suffering a cut in the fight, the WBC heavyweight champion struggled to deal with Wallin.

But he managed to secure a unanimous decision win, but the fight could have been stopped. Wallin could have upset the Deontay Wilder fight against Joshua if he beat the Brit. He failed to do so, but Wilder’s loss to Joseph Parker prevented the fight anyway. Now Wallin looked back at the performance and had no qualms in saying Joshua was the better fighter.

Wallin On Joshua

“I really have no excuses. He was just better, I think. [And] he did really well. He used his reach well. He hit me with some really good shots. Yeah, he was just better, I think. He hit me with some good body shots. I’m always ready for that, but I think they had a good game plan.

“I think maybe, I haven’t watched the fight, but … it was a much tougher fight than the one I had with Fury. He did really well. Maybe he has found his home with Ben Davison, I don’t know. I was confident going into the fight, thought that I had a really good chance of winning, but he did a really, really good job, AJ,” Wallin said 

The manner of his defeat, though, was scrutinized. Wallin was fighting on the biggest stage of his career. A win in Saudi Arabia could have secured more lucrative fights. Parker’s win over Wilder will potentially do that since he has been linked with a Joshua rematch.

At 33, Wallin is at the prime age for a heavyweight. The defeat was the first-stoppage loss of his career, showing how well Joshua performed. And yet, given Wallin’s win over Murat Gassiev heading into the fight, he could have done more. But looking back, Wallin had no regrets over the stoppage.

Wallin On The Stoppage

“I didn’t disagree with him [my trainer]. Joey told me that he’s going to stop it and I didn’t say anything. Joey’s been with me for 10 years. He has seen me training, seen me in almost all my fights. He has never pulled me out of anything. I trust Joey.

“He is always looking out for me. And I feel very happy that I have a trainer that puts my health first. There’s a life after boxing. So I’m really appreciative that he’s looking out for me. If you’re a trainer and you see your guy out there when he comes back and looks worse in the corner—I haven’t watched the fight but I trust Joey,” Wallin stated 

Wallin’s next steps will be to secure some wins against good-name opposition before targeting another big fight. But based on his last performance, he has plenty of work to do. ‘Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com’