Otto Wallin has revealed the extent of the damage he suffered during his bruising defeat to Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia last month after confirming he fractured his nose during the bout.
Joshua put on a dominant display as the headliner of the epic Day of Reckoning event, unleashing a clinical display to leave the Swedish fighter battered throughout before his corner informed the referee he could not continue in the fifth round.
Wallin has now confirmed his nose was fractured early on in the fight but didn’t notice because of the ‘adrenaline’ of the bout.
‘I have a fracture on my nose, it’s not completely broken, but it’s fractured,’ he said while speaking to Boxing News.
‘I noticed that I was bleeding but when you are in the fight you have so much adrenaline and it was early in the fight. I noticed that it was uncomfortable but I don’t think it made a big difference.’
Otto Wallin has revealed the extent of the damage he took during a punishing loss to Anthony Joshua
The Swedish fighter was battered and bruised throughout his Saudi contest against AJ before his corner threw in the towel after the fifth round
Wallin confirmed he fractured his nose after taking a heavy early blow in the fight
Wallin had been rocked by a lovely straight-hook combination just before the end of the fifth round, with his doctors and team assessing him for deciding he could play no further part in the contest.
It handed Joshua a huge win over a man who had previously never been stopped, and Wallin – whose only other defeat came against Tyson Fury – conceded that he had no issue with his team throwing in the towel, agreeing that his health must come first.
‘I didn’t disagree with him [when he chose to pull me out], Joey [Gamache] told me that he was going to stop it and I didn’t say anything.
Wallin said he did not disagree with the decision to call off the fight – insisting his health must come first
‘Joey has been with me for ten years, he has seen me in training and almost all of my fights and he has never pulled me out of anything, so I trust Joey, he is always looking out for me and I feel very happy that I have a trainer who puts my health first. There is a life after boxing, so I am very appreciative that he is looking out for me.’
Wallin was singled out for criticism by boxing great Lennox Lewis after the fight, who said he was unable to judge if AJ’s performance was top notch because the Swedish star lacked ‘definition’ and didn’t throw enough punches.
Lewis told TNT Sports: ‘I couldn’t really judge with this fight if he’s back or not. He definitely looked good. He did what he was supposed to do, go out there and take out a guy you’ve taken out in fights before.
‘The guy didn’t have any definition in his body. I don’t know if he worked hard or if he was in training camp or whatever, and I didn’t see him throwing any punches that actually connected, because AJ looked good after the fight, like a movie star, like he wasn’t even in a fight.’
