By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0, 21 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title next month against Britain’s Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) inside the lion’s den on April 9 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Martin expects this fight to end by a knockout, but not him being the one that’s flattened. Martin feels he’s going to KO Joshua in front of his own fans on April 9 and he could be right.
The 6’5” Martin didn’t have to defend his title against Joshua in the UK, as he could have taken a nice soft voluntary defense against one of the fringe contenders like we see with many champions in the sport. Milking world titles has become sort of a custom with champions. I don’t care who it is, were always seeing milking going on.
At least with Martin, he’s showing some courage by not only facing a decent opponent, but also volunteering to fight him in his home country and home city in London. You have to remember London is the place where Joshua won a controversial gold medal in the 2012 Olympics after he appeared to lose to two of his opponents in that Olympics.
Martin isn’t concerned with being robbed because he plans on knocking Joshua the spark out so that the judges have to say so in the fight.
“It’s not going 12 rounds. We’re the lions of the sport. If you’re going 12 rounds and you’re a heavyweight, something’s wrong,” said Martin to skysports.com. “I’m going to handle my business as the world champion. I’m even hungrier because I want it all. I’m confident I can’t be beat. I’m the champ, baby. I’m going to keep on being the champ so I’m going to knock him out Period. I’m not going to call a round – when I see it, I’m going to do it.”
The talented 6’5” Martin only needs to watch Joshua’s fight against Dillian Whyte from last December to see the weakness in the hulking Joshua’s game. He likes to start his fights out at 100 miles per hour, as he tends to go for quick knockouts. He’s always fought like that even in his days as an amateur.
If you look at the fights Joshua lost in the amateurs, it was against guys that took advantage of his wide open offense and were able to clock him with heavy shots while he was coming forward. You can see that Joshua is totally predictable with his offense. It’s as plane as day. Joshua likes to come forward and just slug. The problem is he’s not a huge puncher in the classical form. He pushes his shots because he doesn’t have great flexibility due to all the muscles on his frame, and he’s not fast of hand. That’s why he’s someone that can be beaten at his own game.
The thing Joshua has in his favor is he’s got a long reach, so his shots are going to land if his opponent isn’t out of punching range. However, Joshua is vulnerable on the inside because he doesn’t have much of an inside game. Martin is the better fighter in close because he’s very good at throwing short punches with respectable power.
Martin isn’t in the same league as WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is in the power department, but he’s still a very good puncher with heavy hands. Martin will give Joshua nightmares when the two of them are at close quarters, throwing bombs at each other. If Joshua chooses to just let his punches fly as he always does, Martin will counter him into the canvas. Joshua is going to need to change his game and use some brainpower to come up with some tactics. Bum rushing a counter puncher like Martin is about the worst thing you could ever do.
“There shouldn’t be a reason for it to go 12 rounds. It shouldn’t take that long,” said Martin. “You’re in front of me now and I’m going to step right over you. I walk this earth like a God. That’s who I am. I’m world champion now and she’s staying right there with me,” said Martin.
This is has got to be the worst possible opponent you can think of for Joshua, because he has developed such sloppy tactics since he captured the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. Joshua never really developed any finesse to his game since he turned pro.
Joshua is still fighting in the same amateurish slug it out manner that he used while in the amateur ranks. He hasn’t had to change because his promoter Eddie Hearn has been putting steady fodder opposition in there with him. In an unthinking manner, Joshua failed to use any of the weak opponents he’s been fed by Hearn to try and work on different skills.
Instead, he’s just gone out and blasted the poor saps out as fast as possible. That’s pretty stupid if you ask me, but I guess there was no one to sit Joshua down and explain to him what the purpose of fodder opponents is. You’re supposed to use the fodder to learn different things. You don’t just go out and blast them to smithereens in one round, which is what Joshua has been doing. He needed to use these opponents to work on developing his stamina, as well as his skills.
Unfortunately, for Joshua, he’s failed to do that. It’s pretty sad because somebody should have taken him aside and told him to stop blasting his opponents out so quickly. Now it’s too late. Joshua is going into a fight against one of the most dangerous heavyweights in the division in 29-year-old Martin, and he’s done nothing to learn and work on his stamina.
Further, Joshua has packed on a bunch of muscles since he turned pro. These is the type muscles that one puts on when you want to look good at the beach in order to show off, but they are not the kinds of muscles that you put on when you want to become good at a sport like boxing.
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Former three-time world title challenger George Groves (22-3, 17 KOs) will be fighting on the undercard against unbeaten domestic level fighter David Brophy (16-0-1, 1 KOs) in a 12 round bout. This is the exact same type of fight that we saw last Saturday night between British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell and Chris Eubank Jr. Groves is too strong and much too talented to be fighting a guy at Brophy’s level. I think this is a fight that could end badly for Brophy. I just hope that Brophy’s corner does the right thing and throws in the towel when it starts getting out of hand in the 1st or 2nd round.
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