By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (4-0, 4 KO’s) will be taking a slight step up this Saturday night against Hector Alfredo Avila (22-15-1, 14 KO’s) in a fight at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. The soon to be 39-year-old Avila is a definite step up from the guys that Joshua has fought since turning pro in 2013, but not a big enough step up to where it means anything.
Avila has recently been stopped on five separate occasions against heavyweights with mostly marginal talent. However, the one that Avila has going for him is that he can punch a little, so if he can tap Joshua’s chin the way that his last opponent Dorian Darch was on February 1st of this month, he might be able to make things interesting.
I mean, I’m not expecting that to take place, but I do see it as a possibility because Joshua has holes in his defense. If a mediocre heavyweight like Darch was able to find Joshua’s chin, then a guy like Avila should be able to get to him as well. It’s not exactly inspiring that three of Avila’s stoppage losses have been in three rounds or less in the past three years.
Recently, Joshua put on a lot of muscle for his fight against Darch. He didn’t try to put it on, but he put the muscle on none the less in a rapid fashion. At 6’6″, 243 lbs, Joshua is about the same size as Wladimir Klitschko. However, Joshua doesn’t carry the muscle weight as well as Wladimir, because he’s slow, and he appears to be muscle-bound. All the muscle that he has on his frame makes Joshua really slow, as it appears to restrict his movement. I know there are some heavyweights like Lennox Lewis and the Klitschko brothers who can carry their weight well, but I don’t think Joshua is one of them. He’s someone that should be fighting at around 220-223 like Deontay Wilder, because it would make him quicker than trying to fight with too much muscle on his frame and ending up looking as slow as molasses.
Joshua will win on Saturday night against Avila, but that doesn’t mean that Joshua has a future in the heavyweight division. It just means that he could beat a 39-year-old journeyman fighter.
I think Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn should get him on a conditioning program to where Joshua will use a lot of stretching, and muscle reducing exercises to get all that useless muscle off of him so that he can be an effective fighter.
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