Hearn wants to match Joshua against Whyte, Chisora, Price, Fury and Haye in next 12 months

By Boxing News - 04/14/2015 - Comments

joshua7By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn plans on upgrading his fighter #7 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (11-0, 11 KOs) against a higher grade of talent if he’s able to get past 35-year-old American journeyman Kevin Johnson in their fight on May 30th.

Hearn says he wants to match the 25-year-old Joshua against the following heavyweights in the next 12 months: Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora, David Price, David Haye and Tyson Fury. All I can say to that is good luck trying to make those fights.

Out of that bunch the only guy I can see agreeing to fight Joshua is Whyte, and that’s because he beat him in the amateur ranks. I don’t see those other guys agreeing to fight Joshua, even though I would favor Haye, Fury and possibly Price to beat Joshua if they came out looking to take his head off rather than fighting passively like many of Joshua’s opponents have fought.

“He [Joshua] will face Kevin Johnson at the O2 Arena on May 30 and from there we are looking at the likes of Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora and David Price,” Hearn said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “Beyond that you have Tyson Fury and David Haye. I’d expect those fights to be ticked off in the next 12 months. People want to see him [Joshua] fight the best now. But this is a process and we have a plan.”

When you’re an Olympic gold medalist, you’re supposed to be fighting the best possible opposition from the start of your career because the Olympic experience counts as pro experience. But we haven’t seen that with Joshua. We’ve seen him fight a lot of old heavyweights like 47-year-old Matt Skelton, 37-year-old Jason Gavern, 40-year-old Michael Sprott, 35-year-old Denis Bakhtov, 36-year-old Konstantin Airich, 38-year-old Matt Legg, 40-year-old Hector Alfredo Avila, 35-year-old Hrvoje Kisicek and 39-year-old Paul Butlin and 34-year-old Emanuele Leo.

We can obviously see what Hearn’s “plan” is and it appears to involve matching Joshua with a lot of old guys because those are pretty much what he’s been facing. He’s fought 11 times as a pro thus far and 10 of the guys he’s fought were in their mid-30s or older. Now he’s about to face 35-year-old Kevin Johnson on May 30th. As for who Joshua will be fighting on May 9th in the Birmingham show, we can only guess. Future events cast their shadows before, so I’m expecting another older fighter.

I would honestly be very, very surprised if Hearn matches Joshua up against the likes of Whyte, Chisora, Price, Haye and Fury in the next 12 months after the Kevin Johnson fight. I don’t see it happening. It’s too much of a radical departure to the guys that Hearn has been matching Joshua up against thus far. You don’t go from putting Joshua in with hapless opposition in their 40s to guys that can potentially take his head off with every punch.

I don’t care how much muscles that Joshua carrying around on his frame and how much he can bench, he would be up against it if he were to get inside the ring with the likes of Whyte, Chisora, Price, Haye and Fury. Hearn’s investment could wind up getting exposed and go belly up. There are already a lot of boxing fans who feel that Joshua was gifted the gold medal in the London Olympics in 2012 with his controversial wins over Erislandy Savon and Roberto Cammarelle.



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