By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) is hitting the weights pretty hard for his fight next month against unbeaten 6’7” Gary Cornish (21-0, 12 KOs) on September 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Joshua, 6’6”, and Cornish will be fighting over the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title.
Joshua wants to win that strap, and then the British title in December against the talented unbeaten Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 Kos), and then possibly go after the European heavyweight title currently held by undefeated Erkan Teper (15-0, 10 KOs) before moving forward to try and challenge for a world title against the likes of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs) or IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs).
Joshua is going about it all wrong in his training in my opinion. In looking at Joshua’s weight work out, I see a lot of exercises that aren’t helping Joshua’s lack of hand speed, mobility, flexibility and stamina. These are Joshua’s biggest flaws, as he’s big, flat-footed and too slow on his feet. A large of that problem derives from all the muscles that Joshua carries around on his 6’6” frame. He recently packed on 30 pounds of muscle since he turned pro in 2013. If you’ve done any kind of weight lifting during your life, you realize how difficult it is to make gains in two years.
At best, maybe you can put on 10 pounds of muscle in a year or two. But with Joshua packing on 30 pounds in just two years, it’s just way too much for him to be carrying in a sport where you need to be able to move around the ring and have an excellent cardiovascular system. In looking at Joshua train, I can’t help but to critique his upside down exercise regimen. I mean, if you’re already slow on your feet and don’t have much hand speed, the last thing you want to do is start hitting the weights like we’re seeing here with Joshua. The exercises that Joshua is using are the type that you’d see from a rugby or pro football player in the NFL.
Heck, I’m surprised Joshua isn’t out on the field hitting a one-man sled with a couch on the back of it with a whistle encouraging him to drive it down the field 15 yards. If Joshua’s goal is to ram Cornish and throw him over the top ropes of the ring on September 12th, then I think he’s doing excellent work in his training. But if Joshua is trying to get in shape to beat Cornish, then I think he’s going about it all wrong. I wouldn’t have Joshua touch weights at all if I were training him. I would have him working on the track doing wind sprints each day.
I’d have Joshua strip off all that muscle that he put on since he turned pro, and get him down to 220 at the most. Yeah, Joshua still wouldn’t have good hand speed like Deontay Wilder, but he’d be a heck of a lot faster than he is now at 250. He’s really slow now that he’s at that weight. The punching power wouldn’t change with Joshua losing weight, because punching power doesn’t come from weight lifting. It’s natural. It’s in your technique, frame, tendons and your fast twitch fibers. Joshua would be faster, and that in turn would help him beat Cornish with ease.
It’s a mismatch between Joshua and Cornish anyway. Joshua could eat his way to a fast 300lbs, and still wipe the deck with Cornish on September 12th.
I can’t recognize most of the guys that Cornish has fought since he turned pro. In his last four fights, he’s beaten Zoltan Csala, Marino Goles, Larry Olubamiwo and Hrvoje Kisicek. I think it’s pretty clear that Cornish’s resume is as inflated as Joshua’s resume in terms of being built up off the back of fluff opponents. That’s obviously a bad thing because it means that Cornish has gotten very little from beating the fodder that he’s been fed since he turned pro. To get something from beating fodder, you need to beat fodder that at least has a shred of talent. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone that fits that category in the fighters that Cornish has fought since he turned pro. I also don’t see anyone on Joshua’s resume that has any talent as well, so they’re kind of in the same boat together as they approach their fight next month. But at least Joshua had an amateur career where he fought top level guys. I don’t see that from Cornish.
Comments are closed.