Froch thinks Joshua took Charles Martin fight too soon

By Boxing News - 02/15/2016 - Comments

frochBy Scott Gilfoid: If it were up to former 168lb belt holder Carl Froch, he would have waited a little longer before putting unbeaten British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) in with IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs).

Froch thinks the fight is coming a bit too soon for the 26-year-old Joshua, especially with the way he was shaken up in his last fight by Dillian Whyte when he was clipped with a hard left hand in the 2nd round.

Froch thinks that Joshua should have waited a couple of more fights before taking on the 6’5” Martin. Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn might have taken the fight out of fear that if they didn’t face the hard hitting Martin now, they might lose out on their chance due to the potential of him getting beaten by someone else before they ever get a crack at him.

“This is a risk for Joshua, make no mistake about that,” Froch said to skysports.com. “Personally I think this is a little earlier than I’d expected for Joshua. It’s not too soon, but just earlier than expected. This is a risk for Joshua. I do think it will pay off and he will become world champion, but don’t think for a minute this will be easy.”

I agree with Froch that the fight is coming too soon for the 6’6” Joshua. I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on the Martin fight for Joshua until he showed that he can beat some of the top contenders in the division without getting staggered and winded. Joshua’s fight against Whyte didn’t really tell us anything about Joshua other than he’s vulnerable to big shots and he’s got potential stamina problems.

Whyte both gassed out and hurt his left shoulder in the 2nd round of that fight. We don’t know what would have happened if Whyte hadn’t hurt his shoulder and hadn’t gassed out. Most top heavyweights don’t fade after just two rounds like Whyte did, and most of them don’t severely injure their major power arm early in their fights. As such, Joshua might have been in a world of hurt if Whyte hadn’t both faded and been injured after the 2nd round.

My point is if Joshua was struggling from being hit back for the first time in his career against Whyte, then what in the heck is going to come with Joshua when he starts getting nailed left and right by a healthy Charles Martin? I’ve seen Martin’s fights, and he doesn’t get tired after two rounds like Whyte. Martin also doesn’t blow out his major power hand after two rounds. He’s capable of throwing power shots all night long and fighting at a high pace.

That might not be good for Joshua, who resembles more of a bodybuilder than a fighter. Despite having a lot of knockouts on his record, Joshua is really little more than an arm puncher. He doesn’t rare back and throw power shots like David Haye and Deontay Wilder. Those guys are big punchers. Joshua is an arm puncher who has gotten over due in part to the incredibly soft opposition this helpful promoter Eddie Hearn has put in with him.

With the kind of gawd awful opposition that Hearn has matched Joshua with, pretty much any top 15 heavyweight in the division would have an identical 15-0 record with 15 knockouts like Joshua has. That’s just reality. Hearn has fed the arm-punching Joshua nothing fodder until matching him against the injured Whyte, who couldn’t do anything due to his shoulder injury and poor stamina last December.

“Martin is clearly a big-punching heavyweight and above all he is, of course, the IBF world champion,” Froch said. “I was ringside when he [Martin] won that IBF title and I have to say I was impressed. The one thing I do remember was Glazkov couldn’t get near him. He is not only a southpaw but he moved well, so we will have to wait and see just how Joshua deals with it.”

What I remember from the Martin-Glazkov fight was how good Martin was at throwing short punches to the head. Martin couldn’t miss with his shots, as he was so accurate with his short, crisp punches. Granted, Martin didn’t show the kind of power that you see from Haye and Deontay, but he made up for it with his volume and accuracy.

I rate Martin as about the same as Joshua in terms of punching power. They’re both arm punchers, and both of them like to throw a ton of punches. Joshua has a better jab, but he doesn’t use it very much because of his habit of bum rushing his opponents.

I see the Martin-Joshua as a 50-50 affair with two high volume arm punchers going toe-to-toe. You have to give Martin a big advantage in that he’s a southpaw, and that means he’s going to be nailing Joshua with shots that he’s not accustomed to all night long. With the two of these big super heavyweights standing in the center of the ring and trading shots, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top. I’m kind of worried for Joshua, however. He was pretty badly shaken up in the Whyte fight, and he might have lingering chin issues going into the match with Martin.

I’d hate to see Joshua get plastered by Martin in the first couple of rounds. The thing is the punch that Whyte connected with on Joshua’s chin is something that Martin can replicate over and over again during the Joshua fight. Martin is capable of throwing those nice power shots all night long without getting tired and suffering catastrophic shoulder injuries like Whyte did. If Martin doesn’t get tired and doesn’t suffer a shoulder injury, like Whyte did, I think Joshua is going to be in a world of hurt in this fight. I’m just saying. I think Martin is a better arm puncher than Joshua. Indeed, I think Martin is a far better arm puncher. The reason for this is Martin isn’t carrying around all that useless bodybuilding muscle like Joshua is. Martin’s entire focus as a pro has been on training for boxing, not training on the side to pack on useless muscle in the gym.



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