By Scott Gilfoid: British boxing promoters Frank Warren and Frank Maloney both feel that 2012 British super heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua should turn pro now rather than waiting until after the 2016 Olympics, where Joshua is hoping to capture a second gold medal.
The 22-year-old Joshua is cool to the idea of turning pro now, and says that money isn’t important to him right now.
Warren said this on Frankwarren.com “Big Joshua has already defeated the best available amateur opposition and needs the fresh challenges that a pro career would offer, to prevent going stale.”
Maloney said to the dailystar.co.uk “My advice to him would be to look at all his options.”
Here’s my take on the Joshua situation: He didn’t even prove that he’s the 2nd best in the 2012 Olympic after getting controversial wins over Roberto Cammarelle, Ivan Dychko and Erislandy Savon, so I think it’s a really, really bad idea for Joshua to be turning pro right now. I disagree with Warren about Joshua going stale and being better off in the pro ranks, because it’s pretty clear that he wouldn’t be facing guys on the same level as the ones he fought in the Olympics for quite some time. We could see Joshua fighting a bunch of easy 3rd tier opponents with records like 2-11 for four years, and gaining very little from it. I mean, look at David Price for example. Price has been a pro for the past four years, and he’s only now fighting 2nd tier heavyweight Audley Harrison. That’s three years of soft opposition. Heck, Price would have been better staying amateur and getting a lot of experience against good fighters under his belt and then turning pro in 2012 and immediately start fighting top five opposition instead of all these useless fights against guys that can’t even fight. You might as well have put Price in with punching bags for the past three years, because that’s what it amounts to.
Joshua’s main problems is that he lacks hand speed, power, defense and mobility. He’s just a big, slow heavyweight that fights flat-footed and throws arm punches. There’s so many flaws in Joshua’s game that it’s not even funny. He’ll be much better off staying in the amateur ranks for four years so that he can continue to improve by fighting the best fighters in the world. If he can continue to fight the likes of Savon, Dychko, and Zhelei Zhang, he’ll improve.
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