By Scott Gilfoid: After Anthony Joshua’s easy 2nd round knockout victory over journeyman Kevin Johnson (29-7-1, 14 KOs) last Saturday night, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he wants to step Joshua up against the likes of Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora or David Price for his fight in September.
That’s when Hearn finally wants to step Joshua up a couple of levels. However, it’s unclear whether Hearn will be able to get any of those names at that time. I tend to doubt it unless he throws some crazy money at those guys. I don’t think for a second that Hearn is serious about wanting to match Joshua against Whyte because he already lost to Whyte in the amateurs in a fight where Joshua was knocked down and nailed repeatedly with bone-jarring shots.
I think it would be a good test for Joshua, but I don’t see that fight happening in 2015, and probably never. The only way we’ll likely see Hearn allowing Joshua to get into the ring with a puncher like Whyte is if Joshua was the world champion and Whyte was his mandatory challenger.
Joshua has a fight scheduled for July 18th at the Manchester Arena. Hearn didn’t say anything about stepping Joshua up for this fight, so you can likely expect another 2nd tier tune-up type of opponent for Joshua in yet another showcase fight. I for one would like to see Joshua finally face someone with halfway decent talent, but I don’t think Hearn wants to take the risk of Johnson getting dropped like he was against Whyte.
“His [Kevin Johnson] face at the end of the fight said it all; it was as if to say ‘that’s not right,’” Hearn said to IFL TV. “He [Joshua] hit him so hard and so fast. It was scary. People say ‘Ah, Johnson’s old.’ That was Kevin Johnson. His 13th fight, Anthony Joshua. He just stopped him in 2 rounds. It probably should have been in the 1st round, really. He’s on another level.”
When asked who Joshua will fight next, Hearn said “David Price, Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora, those kinds of guys. He’s going to beat them easy. You know that, don’t you? But what can you do? You have to go through the process, but it’s going to be a lot of fun watching it. [We need] someone to give him rounds. He ain’t gone past the third round. You probably couldn’t find a better heavyweight to give him rounds,” Hearn said.
Well, if Hearn wants to blame anyone for Joshua not having gone past the third round, he should blame himself for all the soft match-making he’s done for him. I mean, last Saturday’s opponent Kevin Johnson came into the fight having lost 4 out of his last 5 fights. Come on, you expect a guy with that kind of record to give Joshua rounds. Let me give Hearn a clue; when you pick out a guy that is old and has lost four out of his last five fights, the chances are slim that he’s going to give your fighter Joshua rounds. The question is why do you pick out a fighter that has lost 4 out of his last 5 fights when your objective is to give your fighter rounds? It makes no sense.
If Hearn wants to give Joshua rounds, then he needs to put him in with guys like Lucas Browne, Carlos Takam, Tony Thompson, Bermane Stiverne, Bryant Jennings, Andy Ruiz, Antonio Tarver, Joseph Parker or Vyacheslav Glazkov. Those are the guys that Hearn should be looking to match Joshua against if he’s so worked up about wanting to give him rounds. You don’t go looking for a guy with 4 losses in his last 5 fights, and put him in with your guy thinking he’ll give him rounds. That’s extremely naïve.
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