Anthony Joshua thinks he’ll be ready for Wladimir Klitschko by next year

By Boxing News - 05/21/2014 - Comments

joshua536By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua (5-0, 5 KO’s) is still battling fodder opposition but he thinks he’ll be ready to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by 2015. Joshua, the 2012 London Olympic super heavyweight champion, has the size to look Wladimir in the yes, but he’s very robotic, stiff and lacking in the explosive power that you’d like to see from a heavyweight. Joshua has knocked out the weak opposition that he’s been put in with, but he’s so far away from fighting the likes of a Klitschko that it’s not worth mentioning at this point.

“I’m already thinking about challening Wladimir Klitschko in 2015,” Joshua said.

It would be nice if Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn would take the training wheels off of the hulking Joshua and at least put him in with a C level fighter instead of the D level guys he’s been padding his record with. I mean, Olympians really don’t need to be fighting weak opposition like the guys that Joshua has been facing unless there’s some kind of problem that we may not know about. Hearn hasn’t said anything, but with the weak guys that Joshua is being matched against, it makes you wonder if he’s been having problems during his sparring sessions.

Joshua, 24, is being matched up against the same guys pretty much as 19-year-old Hughie Fury, and that’s kind of surprising and more than a little disappointing. Joshua’s about to turn 25-years-old and he should have been past the guys that he’s been fighting right off the bat without even needing to waste time in his career,

This month Joshua is facing Matt Legg (7-2, 3 KO’s) on May 31st in front of 80,000 fans at the Wembley Stadium. It stands to reason that if Joshua is still fighting guys like Legg, how in the world is Joshua going to be able to get a fight against Wladimr in 2015? Does he just ask for the fight and hope Wladimir will want to fight him? It would so useless.

Hearn probably won’t let Joshua anywhere near a heavyweight champion until at least 2018, give or take a year. Look at it this way; If Hearn sends the stiff moving Joshua into the ring with Wladimir or even someone like Deontay Wilder, he’s likely to get bombed out immediately. This isn’t the London Olympics anymore. There won’t be head gear worn, and it won’t be a 4 round bout with controversial scores. This is the professional ranks, and I can see it going really badly for Joshua.

Before Hearn starts thinking about putting Joshua in with any good heavyweight, he needs to him lean down and pick up some more speed, and become more limber. Joshua needs to find some power, because his arm punching won’t do the job against good heavyweights.



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