By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned World Boxing Council (WBC) International heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (9-0, 9 KOs) will be back in the ring in a little over a month against 39-year-old journeyman Michael Sprott (42-22, 17 KOs) in a 10 round bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
This is fight that will be on the Sky Box Office pay-per-view card headlined by Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly 2 rematch. The card is loaded with some of Matchroom Sport’s biggest names, but as far as I can tell, a lot of the fights are mismatches on paper, including the Joshua vs. Sprott fight.
While Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn sees the Joshua-Sprott fight as a good step up for Joshua and possibly a competitive fight, former British/Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price isn’t giving the thirty-nine year old Sprott much of a chance in this fight.
Price doesn’t see it as a good fight for Joshua. He obviously feels that he needs a bigger test than the nearly 40-year-old Sprott, who is coming off of a 1st round knockout loss to 44-year-old Kali Meehan last June.
Hearn will likely be counting on the British boxing fans not being aware that Sprott was taken apart and knocked out by the 44-year-old Meehan in his last fight. Sprott was also knocked out in 1 round by Erkan Teper last year in August. In September 2012, Sprott was knocked out in 4 rounds by Edmund Gerber.
“I doubt it, no because Michael Sprott has lost a couple of fights recently in the first round to lesser fighters than Anthony Joshua and I think he’ll walk through Sprott, no disrespect to Michael. That’s the fact of the matter,” Price said to Sky Sports when asked if Sprott would be a good test for Joshua.
I happen to agree with Price. I mean, if average heavyweights like Gerber, Teper and Meehan were able to KO Sprott in the early rounds recently, then you have to assume that Joshua will be able to do the same thing.
It’s hard to understand why Hearn is wasting Joshua’s time by matching him against such weak opposition. He is an Olympic gold medalist, isn’t he? Those type of fighters are supposed to be moved up quickly with their careers instead of being put in with fodder.
I understand that Joshua’s Gold medal victory was a controversial one due to some boxing fans thinking Joshua lost all four of his fights in the 2012 Olympics, but Hearn should be putting him in against better opposition than guys like Sprott and Denis Bakhtov.
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