By Scott Gilfoid: Former 2012 super heavyweight Olympic Gold medalist Anthony Joshua will be making his pro debut next month on October 5th against little known 32-year-old Italian Emanuele Leo (8-0, 3 KO’s) in a scheduled 6 round bout at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom.
The Joshua-Leo fight will be the head-liner bout on a card with Scott Quigg facing Yoandris Salinas for the vacant WBA super bantamweight title. Also on the card is former lightweight contender Kevin Mitchell battling Marco Lopez and featherweight Lee Selby taking on Ryan Walsh.
The 6’6” Joshua won his gold medal in a controversial fashion at the London Olympics, as he appeared to lose all four of his matches in the games, yet he was given victories in each case.
Joshua’s last two wins over Ivan Dychko and Roberto Cammerelle were especially controversial in that Joshua appeared to lose almost every round of those two fights.
Additionally, Joshua’s first win in the Olympics over Cuban’s Felix Savon was another highly controversial win by Joshua. Like I said, I had Joshua losing to all of the fighters he faced in the Olympics because he was outworked in four fights.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn thinks he has the talent to become a heavyweight world champion in the future. Joshua is young at 23, but I don’t see him having the talent to win a world title.
Joshua is too flat-footed, and not a big puncher. He’s an arm puncher and he lacks stamina in a big way. For his size, you’d think that Joshua would be a big puncher, but in face his opponents had more power than him in the Olympics, especially Cammarelle.
If Joshua continues to get scoring like he did in the Olympics, then I can see him winning a lot of fights in the UK. However, I don’t see Joshua being able to win decisions like he did in the Olympics if he fights outside of the UK. That was some of the worst scoring that I’ve ever seen in boxing.
I rate Hughie Fury as being a better heavyweight in the UK than Joshua, because he’s faster and he moves a lot better.
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