By Scott Gilfoid: 2012 British Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua (3-0, 3 KO’s) says he’s hoping to be able to fight as much as 10 times in 2014. He wants to stay really busy so that he can improve his British ranking.
The 6’6″ Joshua started his pro career in October of last year, and he quickly won three fights by November, beating Emanuele Leo, Paul Butlin and Hrvoje Kisicek. However, while training for a December fight against Dorian Darch (7-2, 1 KO’s), the 24-year-old Joshua suffered a shoulder injury, making it necessary for him to postpone the fight until February 1st at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
“When I completed in the Olympics I wasn’t half the fighter I am today and I’ve still got much further to go,” Joshua told the express.co.uk. “I want to fight eight to ten times this year and if I can level out my progression at a rapid rate towards the end of the year, I will get a better British ranking.”
I’m not sure who told Joshua that it was better for him to rush through his 3rd tier opposition, but I think he needs to have someone else giving him career advice. There’s nothing wrong with Joshua moving into facing 2nd tier opposition. He should have done that right off the bat, because it’s a waste of time for him to be fighting the 3rd tier fodder he’s been fighting since he turned pro. But to use an entire year to fight 10 third tier fighters? I think that’s as stupid as heck. Joshua should be fighting 2nd tier guys and fighting 4-6 times per year so that he can have time to recover and think about his wins to learn from them. Having Joshua rush through weak opposition is totally pointless.
Joshua has a lot of muscle on his upper body, and he’s already having shoulder issues. He’s really rigid and tight when he fights, he lacks hand speed, and he doesn’t have huge power for some reason. He’s a slow, mechanical fighter without the tools to compete against the best in the heavyweight division. On top of that, Joshua’s defense is poor.
I really think Joshua needs to either lose 15 pounds of muscle in order to become more limber or he needs to change his fighting style to where he throws nothing but jabs, because he looks like he’s a knockout waiting to happen once someone gets him past the 6th round. All those useless muscles are going to cause him to be really tired when he faces someone that can take him deep.
Joshua won the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, to be sure, but all four of his victories were controversial. He didn’t dominate anyone in the Olympics, and I had him losing each one of his fights. The British crowd were going mad for him, cheering each one of his missed punches, but I didn’t see him win the Gold. I had Joshua losing to the Cuban Irislandy Savon, the Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang, Ivan Dychko from Kazakhstan and Roberto Cammarelle from Italy. I thought Joshua was the worst of that bunch, and it was kind of funny – and sad – how he was given the Gold rather than the guys that seemed to get the better of him.
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