By Ryan Allan: Perhaps the most intriguing fight of the night, certainly for the more casual fan as Olympic Gold medallist and the hugely likeable Anthony Joshua continues his ascent up the heavy-weight ranks with his toughest test to date against the never been stopped Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson.
Johnson definitely talks the talk and believes he is going to upset the apple-cart with a win that would send shock-waves through the sport although with the bookies pricing Joshua at 100/1 ON to win this fight, we can assume that Johnson is unlikely to be a man of his word.
Johnson holds notable wins over Bruce Seldon, Alex Leapai and Albert Sosnowski and has never been stopped in his 12 year career, and having gone the distance with the legendary Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora amongst others, this is by no means the kind of cannon fodder opposition that Joshua has been used to in his 2 year career so far.
I don’t expect an early knock-out here and I don’ like the odds on Joshua to be the first man to stop Johnson even if I do expect that outcome ultimately so I’m looking at the round betting and the 2/1 on offer for the fight to go beyond round 6 looks pretty tasty to me. Yes, Joshua is a super talent and if he goes in there and blows Johnson away it wouldn’t be a shock, given both Joshua’s talent and that Johnson is now a downward spiral having lost 5 of his last fights but the American is full of confidence (what else would you expect) and I do believe his skills will give Joshua the first difficult assignment of his young career.
I expect the slippery and cocky Johnson to use his mouth and his skills to try to unsettle Joshua but I don’t expect it to have too much of an effect against this really exciting and likeable Brit, who will actually probably enjoy getting some rounds under his belt for a change having never gone beyond 3 rounds in his career thus far. While I expect the stoppage to come, I’m gonna take a chance on Johnson making it to round 7 or more at 2/1 odds as I expect Joshua to slowly chop the American down to earn a late stoppage.
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