By Scott Gilfoid: Fresh off a three rounds spanking by the talented Cuban Irislandy Savon last night, British super heavyweight Anthony Joshua will be moving on to face Chinese 2008 Olympic silver medalist Zhilei Zhang on Monday in the quarter finals of the 2012 Olympic competition. Joshua was given what many boxing fans saw as a gift decision over Savon on Wednesday in London, winning by an 17-16 score.
I had Savon winning all three rounds and completely routing the slow on his feet Joshua in the 3rd round. Joshua looked to be at least 20 pounds heavier than the Cuban, possibly more, but it was useless muscle that only slowed Joshua down and didn’t translate into actual boxing or punching ability. The only thing in Joshua’s arsenal was a right hand, and he could only deliver it when Savon was standing stationary in front of him. This is something I’d already noticed about Joshua’s game. He’s a plodder and fights flat footed. He does reasonably well against guys that don’t move, but if you use movement against him, he’s totally lost and almost helpless.
The 6’6″ Joshua is going to have big problems against the 6’6″ Zhang, because he’s probably the only guy that Joshua will face in the Olympics that’s as big as him, but he’s a lot better at scoring points than Joshua. Zhang, a southpaw, really dismantled Australian Johan Linde on Wednesday, knocking him out in the 2nd round with a beautiful right hook to the head.
Zhang doesn’t load up on every shot like Joshua, because he focuses more on scoring points, but he’s so much better at letting his hands go because he doesn’t have all that useless muscle on his frame like Joshua. Zhang is a nonstop puncher with good power but with a lot of skills. Unless we get another controversial decision for Joshua, I see him getting weeded out by Zhang on Monday. Zhang is just a superior fighter than Joshua.
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