By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua (7-0, 7 KOs) has been added to the September 13th Scott Quigg vs. Paulus Ambunda card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK, according to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn. It looks like the Quigg-Ambunda card needed a name to help sell tickets, and that’s probably where Joshua comes in. Having him on the card will definitely help sell tickets, because the Quigg fight is hardly gripping given that he’s facing an unknown bottom ranked #15 fringe contender instead of a top 5 contender that could give him a good fight.
“We will be adding @anthonyfjoshua to our Manchester show on Sept 13 at the @Phones4uArena,” Hearn said.
The opponent for Joshua isn’t known as of yet, but we’re probably not talking about anyone of real talent. I mean, in Joshua’s last fight he fought 47-year-old Matt Skelton, so that kind of gives you an indication of the caliber of opposition that Joshua has been facing lately. He was fighting far better opposition in the Olympics in struggling to a gold medal in 2012.
The card needs a quality fight on it and unfortunately I don’t see one that is really attention-grabbing. Hearn needs to take the training wheels off Joshua and put him in with a top tier contender so that he doesn’t end up wasting his best years fighting guys that are far, far, far below the opposition that Joshua fought in the Olympics. When you have a fighter with Olympic experience, it’s the equivalent of 20 pro fights.
It doesn’t matter that Joshua’s four wins in the 2012 Olympics were controversial in the eyes of some fans. It’s still a waste of time for Joshua to be fighting third tier opposition. What you don’t want to see is Joshua brought along for 10 years as a pro before he faces his first true top tier opponent like we’re seeing with Kell Brook in his fight against Shawn Porter on September 16th.
Also on the card is lightweight Anthony Crolla facing Gamaliel Diaz in a 12 round bout.
The other fights on the card are as follows:
Kirk Goodings vs. Scott Cardle
Sam Eggington vs. Denton Vassell
Sam Hyde vs. TBA
Jack Massey vs. TBA
Gamal Yafai vs. TBA
Liam Hanrahan vs. TBA
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