TYSON FURY and Anthony Joshua’s Battle of Britain now hangs in the balance – and threatens to be one of the greatest ‘what ifs’ in boxing.
But hope can still be restored if Joshua regains his world titles from Oleksandr Usyk in their expected rematch, following his loss.
Fury has admitted he was ‘wounded’ after seeing his rival surrender the unified belts and potentially throw away their £200million mega-fight.
And it leaves the destiny of the grudge match out of his hands, with AJ left fighting for revenge and potentially his reputation in a rematch with Usyk.
But one man in the rare position of having shared the ring with BOTH men can sit back knowing how he thinks the fight would go.
Otto Wallin twice boxed AJ in the amateurs and later sparred 200 rounds with him before Joshua beat Charles Martin for the IBF title in 2015.
Then four years later he gave Fury the fright of his life, and 47 stitches, coming within whiskers of an almighty upset.
The Gypsy King showed his resilience and boxed for nine rounds with the gruesome gash and was awarded the decision.
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And following Wallin’s experience with Fury, 33, and Joshua, 31, he backed the unbeaten WBC champion to prevail with the British bragging rights.
Wallin, 30, told SunSport: “I think Fury, just because of his size and awkwardness and good boxing skills.
“But also because of his confidence, I feel like he’s very confident and he knows what he’s good at.
“Because of those reasons, I would give Fury the edge. But, at the same time, Joshua is a puncher and if he can find hm, he might be able to hurt him.
“But it’s the same thing with Usyk, he’s got to be aggressive and start roughing Fury up, hit the body and make it a fight.
“Just judging from the Usyk fight, Joshua won’t beat Fury.”
Wallin will get the chance to force through a rematch with Fury when he fights Dillian Whyte on October 30 in London.
Whyte is already mandatory for the WBC belt, and the Swede has the chance to snatch that away from him.
AJ meanwhile, has to go back to the drawing board after being outclassed over 12 rounds by Usyk, 34, in front of 70,000 at Tottenham’s stadium.
But Wallin urged his old sparring partner to get back to his bullish boxing ways which first won him the title five years ago.
He said: “Joshua can win the fight, but he has to really bite down, make it rough in there. He can’t box with him or he will get outboxed again.
“But if they can find a way to step Joshua out of his comfort zone and let everything go and leave everything in the ring.
“If he does that then he can do it, but he has to get rough and do what Derek Chisora did.”
