Hearn thinks Joshua vs. Martin can get made for April 9

By Boxing News - 02/10/2016 - Comments

hearn56By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn believes that a fight can take place between his unbeaten contender Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) and IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin for April 9 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Hearn sees whether the fight can be made entirely up to Martin and his management, because it’s a fight that he believes is doable if there’s genuine interest.

Martin would need to agree to fight in Joshua’s home country of the UK if he wants the fight. Unless Martin is going to get a ton of money, he might want to look in another direction. He doesn’t need to be fighting in front of a huge pro-Joshua crowd. Martin, 29, also doesn’t need to put himself in the position where he needs a knockout in order to win.

We’ve seen some controversial decisions/results in fights that have taken place in the UK over the years with visiting foreign fighters. I’m not sure that the 6’5” Martin will be too happy to find himself on the losing end of a controversial decision.

“If Martin is really genuine, then I think the fight will get made,” Hearn told ESPN. “My gut feeling is Charles Martin fancies the fight and there’s a huge amount of money on offer. We are in talks with Charles Martin’s team, there a long way to go, but he called out Joshua so we have to take it seriously.”

This is probably Martin’s best chance for a nice payday. A fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder or IBO/WBA/WBO champion Tyson Fury would also give Martin a big payday, but Martin would need to wait too long for those fights to take place before he finally got around to facing either of them. Wilder and Fury still haven’t scheduled their next title defenses, so it could be a while.

I think Martin would be better off taking an easy first defense against a bottom feeder type of heavyweight. Someone along the same lines as David Haye’s last opponent Mark De Mori. If Martin could get an easy mark for his first defense, then he would be ready to face either Fury or Wilder later this year.

“We are keen to make the fight for the world heavyweight title. It has probably come a couple of fights earlier than we anticipated but you can’t turn down this opportunity,” Hearn said. “Fighting for the world title wasn’t really on our radar at this stage, but we have to take it seriously.”

I can bet that Hearn is keen to make the fight against Martin. His fighter Joshua will have the hometown advantage against a guy who has some major flaws in his game. I honestly think it’s the best chance that the 27-year-old Joshua has in winning a world title. After looking at how awful he was in his last fight against Dillian Whyte last December, Joshua needs a flawed champion to have a chance of winning a world title. If Joshua fights one of the other champions, I see him losing.



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