By Scott Gilfoid: #7 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (10-0, 10 KOs) will be facing 37-year-old journeyman Jason Gavern (26-19-4, 11 KOs) in a scheduled eight round bout on April 4th at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom.
For the 25-year-old Joshua, this is his sixth straight fight against an aging fighter. Here are the ages of Joshua’s opponents for his last six fights: 40, 35, 36, 48, 39, and 40. That’s obviously pretty old.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been beaming about how great the 6’6” Joshua has looked since turning pro in 2013, but when you look at the quality of the opponents that Joshua has been facing, it’s not hard to look good against the guys that Joshua has been facing. I mean, he’s being consistently matched by Hearn against very, very beatable opposition ever since he turned pro. As such, it doesn’t mean much that Joshua is 10-0, because he’s facing mediocre opposition.
Gavern has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights, and he’s looked progressively worse with each performance. Gavern was totally dominated in his last fight by Gerald Washington in losing a lopsided eight round decision on March 13th.
“Fans in the north east are mad about sport and I am sure it’s going to be a great atmosphere. I plan to put on a show for them,” Joshua said via Skysports.com.
Putting on a great show against a lower level 2nd tier fighter probably isn’t realistic. To me a great show is when you have a competitive fight against a good opponent, but it’s not a great show when you’re facing a 37-year-old no hoper, who has lost 3 out of his last 4 fights. That’s not a great show. That’s a slaughter in my view.
On May 30th, Joshua will be facing 35-year-old journeyman Kevin Johnson in what’s supposed to be a step up in competition for Joshua. Sadly, Johnson probably is a step up in competition, but that’s not much of one though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtftcnNdYoc
Hearn has talked about wanting to get Joshua a world title shot in 2015 or 2016, but I don’t know if that would be a good thing for him. Even if Hearn is on the level about wanting to put him in with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, I don’t think he’s doing Joshua any favors whatsoever if does make that fight.
With the awful opposition Joshua has been facing since he turned pro, if he gets thrown into the ring with the 6’7” Deontay, I see Joshua getting dropped left and right. It would be much worse than the Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte fight in my view, because Deontay would be nailing the flat-footed Joshua with huge right hands over and over again.
Hearn needs to move Joshua up against better opposition slowly for the next two to three years before he even starts thinking about putting him in with a talent like Deontay.
“It’s great to see Anthony return from injury and I’m looking forward to seeing him face Jason in Newcastle,” Hearn said via Skysports.com. “It’s a nice test on his return, Gavern has plenty of experience but Anthony has plenty of frustration to let out and north east boxing fans can expect an explosive performance in Newcastle next week.”
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