By Scott Gilfoid: Despite still not having fought anyone remotely talented since he turned pro in 2013, unbeaten #2 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) believes he’s going to defeat unbeaten Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) for the vacant British heavyweight title on December 13th, and then beat EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper in early 2016, and then face either WBC champion Deontay Wilder or Wladimir Klitschko for a world title by the summer next year.
Joshua is coming off of a 1st round knockout of Gary Cornish (21-1, 12 KOs) last Saturday night to win the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, England. Joshua, 25, knocked the 6’7”, 256lb Cornish down twice in the round before referee Victor Loughlin stopped the contest at 1:37 of the round.
The victory really wasn’t a big deal, however, as Cornish was someone with very mediocre talent, and was arguably a step down from Joshua’s previous opponent Kevin Johnson. The poor opposition that Joshua has been facing seems to have done something to his ego because it’s made him very, very confident to the point where we could see him brought back down to earth in a crash landing when he gets inside the ring with Whyte on December 12th.
“I would like him to fight Teper for the European title in March and then for the world title in the summer,” Joshua said via ESPN.co.uk.
“There’s not a heavyweight around who can last more than two rounds with AJ,” Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told the dailyrecord.co.uk.
Hearn says there’s not a heavyweight that can go more than 2 rounds with Joshua. Is Hearn talking about local heavyweights? Yeah, I think I could agree that there aren’t too many domestic level heavyweights that can go more than 2 rounds with Joshua, but that’s a product of the lesser fighters that Hearn has been pooling from to find opposition for Joshua.
The reality is Joshua is being matched against far lesser talented fighters than the ones he faced in the 2012 London Olympics. Joshua won his gold medal in controversial fashion after appearing to get beaten at least 2 to 4 times in the Olympics. The guys that he was matched against are the type of fighters that would trouble him greatly, but those aren’t the type of opponents that Hearn has been digging up for Joshua since he turned pro in 2013.
Joshua has faced very, very weak opposition, and the wins seem to be making him very cocky. He doesn’t seem to be putting things in perspective right now. He jumping over the low bars that Hearn is putting in front of him, and then assuming that he’ll be able to jump over the high bars with the same kind of success.
I hate to say it but I don’t see that happening. I think we’re going to see Joshua brought back to his 2012 Olympic days with him getting beaten over and over again once he starts facing good opposition. The difference here is I don’t think Joshua will be given controversial wins repeatedly like we saw in the Olympics in London.
“Teper is no different from guys I’ve fought so far,” Joshua said. “Commonwealth, British, European and then world. I can’t predict if Dillian will be a longer fight. My ambition is a bit higher than Dillian Whyte.”
Joshua is kidding himself if he thinks Whyte and Teper are no different than the guys that he’s been fighting. If he thinks that those two fighters are no different from the likes of Kevin Johnson and Cornish then he’s going to be in for a rude awakening. I hope just hope we don’t start hearing Joshua saying that Wilder and Klitschko are no different than the fodder he’s faced thus far, because once he starts talking like that, I think Hearn is going to need to sit him down and pour him some strong coffee and try and talk some sense into him.
Hearn might also want to do Joshua a favor and tell him to get out of the weight room and stop lifting so he can lose some of the useless muscle he’s put on his frame in the last two years. Joshua has gained 20 pounds in just two years. If he keeps up at this pace, he’ll be 270 by 2017 and 290 by 2019.
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