Following the official announcement of Anthony Joshua’s December bout against Swedish heavyweight, Otto Wallin, a clip of one of the duo’s two amateur contests has been doing the rounds on social media.

Whilst some fans see the fight as a ‘warm-up’ for Joshua, there are plenty that believe the tricky southpaw could cause the Brit problems, especially considering ‘AJ’s two defeats to another lefty in Oleksandr Usyk and Wallin’s strong performance against Tyson Fury in 2019.

However, this will not be the first time that Joshua has squared off against the Swede. He defeated him twice as an amateur and has since employed Wallin’s services as a sparring partner in preparation for his first world title win against Charles Martin in 2016.

On social media, a clip of their first meeting, in the final of the Haringey Box Cup at Alexandra Palace in 2010, has been shared.

Joshua got the unanimous decision win on that night, and also in Sweden the following year.

However, Wallin has explained that those fights are of little significance as they were over a decade ago, and both men have vastly improved since, he told Seconds Out.

Joshua-Wallin is the co-main event alongside Deontay Wilder vs Joseph Parker for the event in Saudi Arabia on December 23, topping a bill which features a plethora of stars including Dmitry Bivol, Jai Opetaia, Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois.

Anthony Joshua will face Otto Wallin in December as the co-main event of a mammoth card in Saudi Arabia, and some punters reckon that the two-time champion may be in for a surprise.

Joshua has twice defeated Wallin as an amateur and sparred the Swedish heavyweight as preparation for Charles Martin in 2016.

Despite neither being a known trash-talker, the press conference for the contest turned from respectful to fiery after Wallin claimed that ‘AJ’ was well past his peak, to which the Brit stated that his opponent has ‘never seen a peak.’ The pair then engaged in a fierce face-off.

As the press conference was heating up, the betting odds for the bout saw a massive shift, with fans clearly believing that the underdog, who gave Tyson Fury one of his toughest fights to date, was being massively underrated.

Joshua opened at odds of around 1/12 (-1250) when the event was confirmed, whilst Wallin was given little chance of pulling off the upset at almost 13/2 (+650), on US betting site FanDuel.

However, in just hours those lines saw a dramatic shift, with Wallin backed in to around 3/1 (+310) to become the third man to triumph over Joshua, who drifted out to 2/9 on the site, as shown in a tweet shared by Fight Ghost.

In the United Kingdom, confidence in the Brit seems to have dropped even further, with the best price for Joshua to win, as of writing, at 2/7 (-350) and Wallin at 11/4 (+275). At those odds, Joshua’s chances of winning are deemed closest to when he first faced Oleksandr Usyk, when comparing his fights since he faced Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.

Helenius – 1/16
Franklin – 1/12
Usyk 2 – 13/8
Usyk 1 – 4/11
Pulev – 1/10
Ruiz 2 – 1/2
Ruiz 1 – 1/25
Povetkin – 1/9
Parker – 1/9
Takam – 1/33
Klitschko – 2/5

Joshua-Wallin will take place on December 23 in Riyadh as ‘AJ’ aims to prove his doubters wrong and score what will be seen as a solid win.