By Scott Gilfoid: High level journeyman heavyweight Michael Sprott (40-21, 17 KO’s) is very interested in facing the young and totally untested heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua (5-0, 5 KO’s) if his promoter Eddie Hearn will let the 6’6″ Joshua fight him. Sprott, 39, already pulled off an upset Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Audley Harrison in 2007 in halting him in 3 rounds, and he’d like to add Joshua’s scalp to his resume as well.
Joshua captured a gold medal in the super heavyweight class in the 2012 London Olympics, although Joshua’s gold medal win was high controversial due to many boxing fans feeling like he’d lost most if not all of his contests in the Olympics.
“I hope they give it [the Joshua fight] to me because I want to be the one to put a dent on his record,” Sprott said to Sky Sports. “They were talking around May time and possibly for a British title, so we’ll have to wait and see. If Joshua comes up things will change and I will fight him…He will definitely be a world heavyweight champion at some point in the future, but he won’t be a heavyweight champion while the Klitschkos are around.”
I’d be very surprised if Hearn let Joshua take the fight with Sprott, because this guy can punch a little, and as we’ve seen in Joshua’s five fights as a pro, he’s very easy to hit. Defense is definitely not Joshua’s specialty, and I don’t imagine it ever will. He gets hit so cleanly, as if he doesn’t have the hand-eye coordination to defend himself properly. If Sprott is able to take Joshua past the 6th round, I could see him stopping him because Joshua has never fought beyond 4 rounds, and he’s got a lot of big body building muscles that will likely weigh him down.
With there being 4 heavyweight titles to grab, it’s possible that Joshua could capture a world title in the future if he’s steered away from the likes of Deontay Wilder, Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola once Wladimir Klitschko has retired. Joshua doesn’t have huge power, as he’s more of a flat-footed arm puncher with limited hand speed. I see him as a slightly taller version of Frank Bruno, but without Bruno’s ability to move around the ring. The only way I see Joshua winning a title is if he’s put into the ideal situation where he faces someone that one of the sanctioning bodies picks out from the middle of the pack for him to fight. We see that kind of thing all the time, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joshua facing someone like Alex Leapai for a world title in a weird fight.
Joshua will be in the ring next month on April 19th against an opponent still to be determined at the Manchester Arena. Joshua is coming off of a 1st round knockout win over Hector Alfredo Avila earlier this month. It wasn’t much of a fight because Avila went down from a nothing shot and immediately held his right ear with a look of pain on his face. The fight was then halted.
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