By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (10-0, 10 KOs) feels he’s making progress towards a world title shot in the near future. Joshua, 6’6”, hasn’t fought anyone that you can call good or anyone that you can refer to as a big puncher, but he still feels that he could be heading towards a world title shot if he can keep winning.
Just who Joshua wants to face in a world title fight is the big question. If it’s the much faster and stronger Wladimir Klitschko then we’re probably looking at Joshua getting knocked out and badly exposed.
The same goes for Joshua facing the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder fight. Both of those guys are too big of a step up from the awful opposition that Joshua has been facing since he turned pro.
Joshua, if he wants to win a world title, will need to be matched against WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev. He’s a fighter that many boxing fans see as aging paper champion.
Chagaev certainly didn’t look good in his recent fight against 41-year-old Fres Oquendo last July. That was a really poor showing from Chagaev, and he barely won that fight. Joshua could probably beat Chagaev unless he gets hit with one of his southpaw left hands.
“I feel, in the current heavyweight division, if I keep on progressing, it will edge me towards a world title fight,” Joshua said via Skysports.com. “I don’t know when the opportunity will present itself, so I’ve got to be prepared at all times. But I feel in 2015 – if I can do what I did this year in 2015 – I feel I’m definitely pushing towards that [world title] shot.”
I wouldn’t expect Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn to steer him towards Wladimir because that would be really tough fight for Joshua, who pushes his punches instead of throwing them with explosive speed and power like Wladimir does. The muscle that Joshua carries around seems to slow him down, causing him to be flat-footed and non-explosive.
Joshua will be fighting 35-year-old journeyman Kevin Johnson (29-6-1, 14 KOs) on April 4th at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom. Joshua’s fans feel that if he can score a knockout over the aging Johnson then it would show that he’s in the same league as the Klitschkos, because Vitali Klitschko couldn’t knock Johnson out when he faced in the past. However, there’s a big difference between the Johnson that Vitali faced and the Johnson who exists now.
Vitali fought Johnson almost six years ago when he was more or less in his prime still. Johnson has aged since then and lost many times against mediocre opposition in many cases. If Joshua can knock Johnson out now, it really won’t mean anything due to Johnson’s advanced age.
Comments are closed.