By Dean Bain: The IBF heavyweight championship will be contested in the O2 arena, London on the 9th April. IBF champion Charles Martin (23-0-1) will make his title defense against local fighter Anthony Joshua(15-0).
The reaction from around the boxing world surprises me, they seem shocked that Joshua has jumped up too many levels to fight for the title in only his 16th fight. Why though? You only have to look at both fighters records to see that this fight is 50/50. Joshua of course has not fought anyone at the top of the division but take Martins fight with Vyacheslav Glazkov away he is also very inexperienced.
Take away their last fights Martin and Joshua have fought fairly low level opposition, for me Joshua’s opponents have been a slights higher level to Martin’s and I would expect most of them to beat Martin’s opponents.
Would Joshua have won the title if he had fought Glazkov on 16th January? Yes he would have. Glazkov did get injured but he was clearly struggling against the bigger Martin and I feel Martin would have won that fight without Glazkov being injured during the fight. Joshua was hurt against White and he let his emotions get the better of him. We will see in this fight if he has learned anything from his last fight as Martin is a serious puncher and if Joshua is caught it may be game over. Martin is also a southpaw and Joshua hasn’t fought one in his professional career, in fact the last time was in the final of the 2012 Olympics. Joshua also has serious power and don’t let the White fight suggest he hasn’t. White is a very tough guy and will give many fighters a tough fight in the coming years.
I think this is a perfect fight for both Martin and Joshua, is it worthy of the IBF championship? No but at the end of the day Martin is the champion and in his first defense he has taken a tough fight. In a era where the best fighters seem to avoid each other both fighters should be praised for putting it all on the line instead of going for inflated records.
The O2 will be rocking and will most likely sell out in the first day. Who will win though? I can’t see past a Joshua win and by knock out. I have a lot of respect for Martin in taken this fight, more should follow his path.
The problem is after this fight. Is Joshua ready for the top guys in the division? No not for me, he requires a couple more fights to be in there with the other champions. The thing is if he wins this fight he is going to get a couple of fights before he needs to fight the other champions. If Dereck Chisora wins his next fight for the European championship then I would think this would be the first defense and then it would be the mandatory challenger. This is most likely going to be Joseph Parker which will be another great fight and a 50/50.
We don’t have to wait to long to see how this is going to play out. I for one am excited to see all these potential fights in the heavyweight division.
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