By Scott Gilfoid: Despite the fact that unbeaten British #2 WBC heavyweight contender/prospect Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) hasn’t yet faced a live body since he turned pro two years ago after winning a controversial gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, Joshua feels that the only heavyweights that can test him in the division are Deontay Wilder, Wladimir Klitschko, David Haye, Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora.
Joshua seems to be assuming that he’d be able to get past heavyweights like Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev, Carlos Takam, Tony Thompson, David Price, Chris Arreola, Bermane Stiverne, Lucas Browne, Mike Perez, Bryant Jennings, Vyacheslav Glazkov, Andy Ruiz and Charles Martin.
I mean, if Joshua thinks he could beat those guys, then why in the heck hasn’t Joshua fought those guys at the start of his career instead of facing fighters like 40-year-old Michael Sprott, and 47-year-old Matt Skelton?
“Haye, Klitschko, Fury, Wilder, Chisora. I think those are the only guys right now who’d be able to give me a real good test. The interesting thing is I’ll have to fight them sooner, rather than later,” Joshua said to the squaremile.com.
Oh man, I think Joshua is really jumping ahead of himself here by figuring that he can only be tested by those fighters. I think there’s a heck of a lot of guys that Joshua skipped over to arrive at that bunch. By the way, I don’t rate Chisora as being among the five heavyweights. I don’t rate Haye because he hasn’t fought in three years and it’s debatable whether he’ll ever return to the ring.
Even if Haye does make a comeback, we have no way of knowing whether he’ll be any good because he still hasn’t tested out his surgically repaired right shoulder. With an injury like the one Haye suffered, he might not be able to come back at 100 percent. If Haye is forced to fight with just his left hand, he’s going to get beaten by the top heavyweights, and even some of the mediocre ones.
“I don’t think boxing fans are ever satisfied. They’re always looking for the next beast to come out and beat someone,” Joshua said.
Wow! It sounds like Joshua is really bellyaching here about the fans not giving him love. I mean, if the boxing fans aren’t pouring compliments over Joshua’s head like buckets of water one after another, it might be a sign that they realize that he’s been matched against awful opposition his entire career. The boxing fans want to see Joshua some actual live bodies like the first list of fighters above.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has put Joshua’s career lever in ‘soft mode’ and basically kept him there without shifting up to ‘good mode’ and ‘superb mode.’ Instead of Joshua fighting the likes of Povetkin, Pulev, Arreola, Takam, Perez, Browne, Price, Jennings, Glazkov, Ruiz and Martinez, we’ve seen Joshua still fighting the likes of Kevin Johnson, Raphael Zumbano Love and Jason Gavern. How come Hearn is still matching Joshua against those guy? He’s talking about wanting to have Joshua fight for a world title by late 2016.
Is Hearn going to go from matching Joshua against 3rd tier fodder to having him fight for a world title against a talent like Deontay Wilder? If so, it’s going to end badly for Joshua because he hasn’t been tested at all, and he’s been stuck fighting punching bags for two years. He’s not progressing. But what I’m noticing is that Joshua isn’t putting things into perspective. He’s starting to sound a little egotistical, and I don’t know why.
Joshua get a clue and realize he’s been facing remedial opposition, and those wins over those guys mean zero. You could take someone like Arreola and feed him all 13 opponent that Joshua has faced and I’m sure that Arreola would be 13-0 with 13 knockouts as well. You do the same with Browne, Perez, Takam, Jennings, Glazkov, Ruiz, Martinez, and Chisora. You feed them the same guys that Joshua has fought, and they’re going to tear those fodder opponents apart.
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