By Scott Gilfoid: While heavyweight contender/prospect Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) still hasn’t fought a contender yet in the division that can test whether he’s any good or not, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already thinking that he’ll be ready to fight for a world title by next year.
Hearn believes that Joshua is already good enough to destroy the top domestic heavyweights David Price, Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora. Hearn wants to match Joshua up against former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye next year at the Wembley Stadium in London, UK.
“I think so, I think that’s around the right time before he will be challenging,” Hearn said via Talksport.com about Joshua challenging for a world title. “He’s number two in the WBC and all the governing bodies are trying to put him up in to the mandatory position already, but he’s just not quite ready.”
Well, if Joshua’a not ready then why in the heck if Hearn yacking about wanting to put Joshua in with Haye, Tyson Fury and David Price? I get the feeling that Hearn has some doubts about Joshua, because if he really believed in him, he wouldn’t be holding him back like he’d doing by having him fight the likes of Kevin Johnson and Jason Gavern instead of the top contenders in the heavyweight division.
The more Hearn flaps his gums about Joshua, the more I think he’s not going to face his first real test until he challenges for a world title in the future. That’s unfortunate though because in order for you to become a world champ, you need excellent offensive skills. That means that Joshua is going to be getting hit back for the first time in his career, and he may not be ready for that experience.
We saw how Joshua struggled badly in the 2012 London Olympics when he won a controversial Gold medal after appearing to lose two of his fights in the Olympic competition to Erislandy Savon and Roberto Cammarelle. Those were the last times that Joshua fought quality fighters, and he getting nailed left and right by those guys. Unlike the fighters that Hearn has been digging up for Joshua since he turned pro in 2013, the Savon and Cammarelle were actually hitting Joshua and backing him up.
They weren’t retreating to the ropes like sacrificial lambs waiting to be slaughtered. There’s a right way and a wrong way to fight Joshua, and the wrong way is to retreat to the ropes and play sparring partner.
Another wrong way to fight Joshua is to stand in the center of the ring and wait for Joshua to get off first. The right way is to go out and attack Joshua nonstop with punches. When that happens, Joshua’s form breaks down to the point where he looks amateurish. He loses his cool completely and starts throwing shots wildly. He’s very beatable when he’s under heavy and unrelenting attack. He’s not beatable when fighters retreat to the ropes and just cover up without throwing punches.
“It’s really the case of that he needs the rounds, and it’s trying to find people that will give him rounds,” Hearn said. “It’s very difficult, the price is going up by five, ten, twenty percent every time he gets into the ring.”
Well, if Hearn is really having problems finding opposition for Joshua, he needs to open up his purse and come up with some decent cash to pay the top guys. I’m sure that if Hearn came up with a big wad of cash and threw it at the feet of the top contenders, they’d scoop it up gladly to face Joshua and possibly even KO him.
Hearn needs to stop bellyaching already and dig deep to find that cash to get someone good like Lucas Browne, Bryant Jennings, Kubrat Pulev, Carlos Takam, Chris Arreola and Bermane Stiverne.
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