By Scott Gilfoid: In looking at the 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua perform in this year’s Olympics, I feel that he could be a lot better if he trimmed off 15 to 20 pounds of muscle on his upper body and worked with someone on his flexibility.
He’s too slow of hand and way too tight in his upper body movements for him to compete against quality heavyweights in the pro game in my estimation.
Joshua looked slow and musclebound in his controversial wins against Ivan Dychko, Roberto Cammarelle and Erislandy Savon. I didn’t see any of those guys as having fast hands, but they looked a heck of a lot faster than Joshua.
The question is why is Joshua’s hands slower than they should be and why does he seem so tight? My belief is he’s carrying around way too much muscle for his own good. Joshua’s arms are way too huge and he’s carrying around too much muscle on his shoulders. That’s got to go if he wants to pick up speed. I’ve seen a lot of fighters just like Joshua with too much muscle that impeded their ability to throw combinations and throw with speed. Some of them were wise enough to trim off that muscle and it really helped their game. I think Joshua could stand to do the same thing, and I believe it would make him a lot better fighter.
My suggestion is that he should stay away weightlifting completely, run 10 to 15 miles a day as possible, and work out with a ballet coach to help him with his flexibility issues. He badly needs to be more flexible he looks and fights like a body builder a day after a serious work out. All torn down and sore.
Since Joshua is planning on staying an amateur for the next four years he’s got time to experiment with his body in trying to improve. I think he’d do really well if he took off at least 15 pounds of upper body muscle to start with. After he did this he’d immediately see improvements in his speed and might want to take off another 5 to 10 pounds to get even more speed.
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