Joshua wants to KO Charles Martin, then face Haye

By Boxing News - 03/07/2016 - Comments

joshua455By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten #2 WBC, #2 WBO, #4 IBF, #12 WBA Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) says he’ll be looking to score a knockout next month in his title challenge against IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) on April 9 on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from the O2 Arena in London, UK.

Joshua says if/when he sees an opening in Martin’s defenses, he’ll go after it and look to take him out. Joshua also says he’s interested in making a defense of his IBF title against 35-year-old David Haye after that.

It’s all dream stuff on Joshua’s part because there’s a very good chance that he’ll get blasted out by the 6’5” Martin by righting reckless like we’ve seen in his first 15 fights as a pro.

Joshua’s reckless/bum rushing style almost cost him in his last fight against the injured Dillian Whyte last December. Joshua was clipped by a big left hook by Whyte in the second round while carelessly attacking him. The shot had Joshua staggering about the ring. If not for Whyte aggravating his injured left shoulder in that round, Joshua likely would have been finished off and knocked out.

“Yes, because I want to display my punching power and my accuracy,” Joshua said to skysports.com about him wanting to score a knockout against Martin. “I wouldn’t do it in a reckless fashion without composure. This will be composed and calculated and when I see the opportunity I am going to capitalize on it. I want to be able to show what some people call a ‘professional novice’ can do to a world champion. That’s why I want to knock him out in good fashion.”

Well, the only way Joshua seems to know how to fight is by charging forward and just throwing wild flurries. The thing is he’s slow and robotic with his arm punches, he’s going to get blasted out by the first heavyweight he faces with some power, hand speed and talent. Whether that’ll be Martin is unknown.

It’s hard to know how good Martin is right now because he’s not been facing live bodies during his career. The one slightly good opponent that Martin has faced, Vyacheslav Glazkov, blew out a knee in the third round of their fight last January. We never got to see whether Martin could stand up to Glazkov’s power and talent in that fight due to him injuring his knee. I think Joshua will lose to Martin, because he’ll fight like a rank amateur against him and Martin will take advantage of Joshua’s lack of skills, hand speed and power.

Joshua needs to learn how to box from the outside, use his jab, and find a way to not get hit. His approach to fighting is so simplistic that it’s not even funny. Joshua’s fighting style reminds me completely of 2008 U.S Olympian Shawn Estrada. If you ever had the chance to watch Estrada’s fights as a pro, you’ll have noticed that he would always come charging out of the blocks in the 1st round and be looking to take his opponents out immediately with flurries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3by7TeAinQ

Estrada was being matched against weak 2nd and 3rd tier opposition in fights where he was supposed to be learning from. But instead of taking it easy in order to get something from the fights, Estrada would just mow his hapless opponents down by throwing nonstop power punches. Joshua does the exact thing that Estrada did. He’s not trying to box, take it easy on the soft opposition in order to learn from the fights. He’s just going out and mowing them down as fast as possible.

The thing is Joshua doesn’t have the speed or power to fight like that against the better opposition. That’s why it’s so, so sad that Joshua is fighting with such poor form in his early learning fights, because he should be focusing on getting something from these fights rather than trying to take them out as fast as possible.

As far as I’m concerned, Joshua threw away his first 15 fights of his career and learned nothing from them. His promoter Eddie Hearn probably should have had Joshua learn the hard way by putting him in with 1st tier guys right off the bat, because Joshua would have been forced to use technique against these fighters because he would have been getting nailed left and right if he fought in a reckless manner against them.

“Bring it on,” Joshua said about a fight against Haye. “My heart tells me I’m ready to rock and roll. After 16 fights, I’m at championship level now but I have April 9 to get out of the way. David Haye is definitely someone I would consider and take seriously. I’ll do it when I’m ready and he’s ready and it will be a mega-fight. I’m looking forward to more competition like that at world level.”



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