By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he sees his franchise fighter Anthony Joshua’s next fight against IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) as a 50-50 fight on April 9 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. But in the next breath, Hearn insists that there’s no way that Joshua can be denied winning the IBF championship.
Hearn says he cannot see Joshua losing the fight, and he believes that his British fans will lead him to victory on the night with their cheering.
“The support he’s got from the British public to push him over the line could be the deciding factor in a very tough fight,” Hearn said to skysports.com.
Well, I would normally say that it’s a good thing for a fighter to be fighting in front of their home crowds, because it usually leads to a better performance in my view. However, in the case of the 26-year-old Joshua, I think it’s a really bad thing that he’s going to be fighting in front of a large crowd at the O2 Arena in London, because he has a bad habit of bum rushing his opponents and fighting like he’s brawling in the street.
I mean, Joshua fights like he has no sense at all in his head when he’s doing his bum rushing bit, and I don’t think that’s a good thing with him facing a guy that is very good at letting his hands go in Charles Martin. To be sure, there are plenty of heavyweights in the division that Joshua would do well against if he jumped on them in the 1st round and started throwing nonstop punches.
The crowd would probably help Joshua beat the likes of Andy Ruiz Jr., Manuel Charr and Chris Arreola. However, against a talented large heavyweight like the 6’5” Martin, I think it’s not a good thing for Joshua to be fighting at home in front of a mess of screaming and singing fans. If the fans are screaming like mad, Joshua will likely fight like an amateur by not using his brain and instead just swinging for the fences. This is professional, not street fighting or amateur boxing.
To excel at the top of the sport, you need to use brains more than brawn and I think Joshua fights more with brawn. We saw Joshua almost get knocked out in the 2nd round in his last fight against Dillian Whyte last December, when Joshua tried to take him out. Whyte was able to take advantage of Joshua’s primitive caveman attack by hurting him with a left hook to the head. Now imagine what a fighter like Martin will do to Joshua if he starts swinging like a wild man in the ring on April 9. Martin will calmly step back, look Joshua’s primitive style, and nail him with a peach of a left hand to get him out of there.
It's what it's all about..all on the line! https://t.co/Fl5xDSeK0c
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) February 15, 2016
“This fight, they make him a big favorite but I see this as a 50-50 fight,” Hearn said. “I asked the question: ‘Can you beat Charles Martin now? That’s the only thing that I want to know.’ The answer is: ‘Yes, we believe we can.’ In that case, you have to take this shot and try and become heavyweight champion of the world.”
Well, make up your mind, Hearn. Can Joshua beat Martin or not? If he can, then why in the heck are you talking about this 50-50 nonsense? Get your mind straight for a second before you start blabbering about the match-up.
I get the impression that Hearn is just making this stuff up as he goes along, The fact that he’s going back and forth with his predictions suggests that there’s some serious doubt in his mind about this fight. I think Hearn is starting to realize that he may have royally blew it by making this match-up.
Up until now, Hearn has been matching Joshua like a mother hen, carefully putting him in with absolutely dreadful opposition that he could beat just by showing up and throwing some arm punches. But with Hearn now having taken a major risk by putting Joshua in with Martin, he’s looking at the potential reality that his franchise fighter Joshua could wind up getting royally whipped by the hard hitting Martin. Believe me, a loss to Martin will put Joshua in the same downward spiral as we saw with Audley Harrison after he started getting exposed left and right after winning a gold medal in the Olympics.
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