By Scott Gilfoid: British promoter Frank Warren believes that Olympic British super heavyweight Anthony Joshua could be headed for a future world title in the heavyweight division, and he sees Joshua as potentially being able to achieve that soon.
Warren said to thesun.co.uk “I believe he [Joshua] has the potential to become a world heavyweight champion quicker than anybody previously.”
I wish I could agree with Warren about Joshua’s future, because I don’t see the talent being there for him. I think he’s capable of winning the IBO heavyweight title, maybe the EBU strap, and possibly the British and Commonwealth titles, if David Price is out of the picture. But I don’t see Joshua as a future world champion. Too many flaws in his game.
Joshua will be fighting Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle for the super heavyweight Olympic Gold medal on Sunday in London, England.
Joshua has been far from impressive in his Olympic competition, winning a highly controversial 17-16 score over 22-year-old Cuban Erislandy Savon in Joshua’s first fight in the 2012 Olympics. Countless boxing fans felt that Savon should have won that fight, as did I. I had Savon winning by six points. In Joshua’s next fight in the 2012 Olympics, he squeaked by China’s Zhilei Zhang by a 15-11 score. I had Zhang nicking the fight by a point, but I’d be okay with a draw.
No way did I see Joshua winning that fight, because he was getting tagged in all three rounds, in particular the 1st and the 3rd. And in Joshua’s latest semi-finals fight against Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan, Joshua won the fight by a 13-11 score. Apart from the 3rd round, I saw Dychko completely dominating Joshua and winning comfortably. I know the fight took place in London, but God I thought that was awful scoring for that fight all the other two. The British boxing fans were going crazy for every one of Joshua’s punches, even screaming when he missed with his shots, which was fairly often. When Dychko would land cleanly, the crowd didn’t say a word. You could literally hear a pin drop when Dychko would smack Joshua in the puss. I thought it was just bad, bad scoring of the fight.
I think Joshua is a decent heavyweight, but I see him as having too many flaws to become a world champion. If we’re talking British heavyweights only, I rate Dereck Chisora, David Haye, David Price and Tyson Fury all above Joshua in terms of talent. I think Joshua is a fine jabber, but he’s too flat-footed, too slow and too weak to beat the beat guys even in his own country.
At 22, I guess Joshua can wait them out and he’ll eventually be the top dog in England, but as far as the rest of the world goes, I don’t see it happening. Joshua isn’t much younger than Deontay Wilder, and he’s going to be taking over for the Klitschkos in the very near future at the top guy in the division. I think Joshua can have a spot as one of the fringe contenders in the division, but that’s about as far as I can see him going. This isn’t Olympic competition where you win questionable decisions while fighting at home in the UK. The pro game is a much different situation.
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