Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev: Bleacher Report Staff Predictions

Unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua returns to action Saturday against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.

Joshua, 31, from Great Britain, holds the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles, with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury holding the other important pieces of boxing's heavyweight championship picture.

But before those two guys can duke it out for all the marbles, Joshua needs to put away the Bulgarian brute on Saturday night in front of 1,000 fans at Wembley Arena in London.

Joshua vs. Pulev will be streamed live on DAZN. The main card telecast begins at 1 p.m. ET, with Joshua and Pulev expected to make their ring walks around 5:30 p.m. ET.

But before this heavyweight championship fight happens across The Pond, your two favorite Bleacher Report boxing writers got together to give you their predictions for the fight.

Kelsey McCarson: 'Beating Pulev Is No Gimme'

Mark Robinson Photography Ltd

Kubrat Pulev is riding an eight-fight win-streak heading into Saturday's bout against unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

His most recent loss? That happened way back in 2014 to a prime version of Wladimir Klitschko.

That was also Pulev's only loss, and it was simultaneously Klitschko's final knockout victory as a world champion.

Dr. Steelhammer started to look old in his next fight against Bryant Jennings the following year, and before the end of 2015, he had been shockingly usurped by a brash upstart named Tyson Fury.

Pulev has since rebuilt himself into one of the most formidable heavyweight contenders in the world today.

The 39-year-old would seem to have one last chance to capture a world title. Age makes that the most distinct possibility, which goes along with the fact that it took him six years to get another opportunity after his first big chance.

Pulev was a decorated amateur fighter who has gone on to become one of the most fearsome heavyweights in the professional ranks. He's tough, smart and can give any fighter issues on any given night, making a superfight between Joshua and Fury far from a guarantee.

As it stands, Joshua vs. Fury would crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion in boxing since Lennox Lewis accomplished the feat in beating Evander Holyfield in 1999.

But there are plenty of other big fights scattered throughout history that never happened because a guy like Pulev showed up on the scene, was quickly overlooked and shocked the world anyway.

Joshua is a heavy favorite (DraftKings has him at -1250), but he lost to Andy Ruiz Jr. last year as an even bigger favorite.

Sure, Joshua seems the likely winner on paper, but beating Pulev is no gimme. If Joshua isn't focused on the task at hand, The Cobra could spit enough poison to get the job done.

Besides, important things fall apart so often in the sport that it almost makes more sense to believe the mooted Joshua vs. Fury fight will be boxing's next big casualty.

Pulev pulls off the shocker to make 2020 as complete a mess as possible.

Pulev, TKO, Rd. 10

Lyle Fitzsimmons: 'Pulev Is a 250-Pound Sack of Meh'

Mark Robinson Photography Ltd

Yes, it's heavyweight boxing.

And yes, Anthony Joshua has already shown vulnerability.

I'll concede to Kelsey on both those points and admit that when 200-plus-pound men hit one another, there's always a chance that one of them will tumble unexpectedly.

So if he can lose to a surprisingly skilled fighter who also doesn't exactly look the part of professional athlete like Ruiz, he could certainly be beaten by someone as muscled-up as Kubrat Pulev.

But he won't be.

Though the flameout at Madison Square Garden swiped Joshua's aura of invincibility, the adversity made him a better fighter by the time he faced his nemesis six months later. The rematch was a dud, but Joshua stayed true to a game plan and executed it to perfection while avoiding even the slightest hint of trouble from a guy who had stopped him 189 days earlier.

He got beat. He reversed it.

And while Ruiz is far closer to Bruce Seldon than Joe Louis on the heavyweight continuum, it was still an admirable feat for a guy many had dismissed as a feckless pretender.

Meanwhile, Pulev is a 250-pound sack of meh.

He lost every second of every round against Klitschko and has done little else in the past couple of years other than simply not losing to the likes of Hughie Fury, Bogdan Dinu and Rydell Booker.

Not exactly the murderers' row of modern heavyweights.

And nothing Joshua himself couldn't handle, perhaps all in the same night.

So matched against a guy who's a couple of inches taller—not to mention longer, more athletic and more powerful—it's difficult to envision much beyond Pulev showing up, getting hit a lot and falling down.

In fact, on the staircase of upset chances, he's roughly two steps up of Logan Paul.

Kelsey's right: 2020 has been as messy as they come. But come on, man. Even boxing has its limits.

Joshua, KO, Rd. 9

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