By Gavin Howie: Anthony Joshua stopped Carlos Takam after the referee somewhat controversially called a halt to the contest in the 10th round, of what was an entertaining and grueling contest to say the least. Following this, the majority of the 75,000 fans at the Principality stadium in Cardiff vented their frustrations with the chorus of boos.
Takam will come away from this with so much credit, taking the fight at 12 days notice, and putting up such a rugged performance, even with the distraction of a nasty cut he sustained very early on in the fight. He was dabbing away at his eye most of the match, and although clearly affecting his vision, did not dishearten him from taking Joshua’s best shots and showing little effect.
There was a head-butt from Takam in the 2nd round that landed bang on Joshua’s nose that was possibly intentional, and definitely had an effect on Joshua’s breathing throughout the contest. This can’t be ignored from the fact Joshua does have stamina issues, and coming in at his career heaviest of 18st 2lbs certainly did not help his case either. He was missing with big power shots badly at times, and that also would have drained him quicker. Excuses aside, he does have major problems with his engine, whether it be his size, or training methods is up for debate.
Anthony Joshua is a major pay-per-view star in the UK, and can sell out any stadium in the country against absolutely anyone. The question is, how can you top fighting in front of 75,000 people in a stadium against a mandatory opponent who is largely unknown to the general public? There is not much you can do, to actually better being PPV on UK TV, and selling out a massive stadium, even if it is against better opposition, such as Wilder, Parker, Fury etc. Eddie Hearn wants to make as much money out of Joshua as quickly as he can, because lets not kid ourselves on here and claim Joshua is popular due to his great technical boxing ability. Joshua is a massive PPV star in the UK due to his personalty, and popularity. Joshua will lose, and lose several times in his career, most likely by KO. He has a questionable chin, and has already been knocked out several times in sparring. He is also very robotic, and has little upper body movement and defensive issues.
Eddie Hearn seems an intelligent guy, and knows Joshua is a money making machine for him. The fans however, made their feelings clear by booing Hearn after the contest during his interview. Even Joshua joined in on this, by booing his own promoter along with the fans. The undercard of this event was dreadful. The fans were there to see Joshua, and no-one else. The boo’s were likely in reference to the fact Hearn is ripping fans off by charging premium PPV fees for a main event against a stand in mandatory challenger, who only took the fight at 12 days notice. Along with the undercard being very poor, the commentary was also real bad. Carl Froch was a great fighter, and was one of my favorites. As a commentator or pundit, he is dreadful. Full of contradictions, and just loves the sound of his own voice. He should stick to fighting at Wembley stadium in front of 80,000 people.
Joshua will likely fight twice next year, not 3 as Hearn has previously suggested. His nose injury will likely keep him out longer than anticipated. As always with Joshua his next fight will be ppv in a sold out venue, possibly outside of the UK. His next fight will not be against Wilder, as Hearn wants him to face Dillian Whyte first in the hope that Whyte can beat Wilder, as he is the biggest threat of active fighters currently out there at the moment to Joshua. Hearn will likely match Joshua against a top 10 fighter next, hopefully against a live opponent like Jarrell Miller, or Luis Ortiz, (if he can overcome his doping suspension first). If Joshua comes through this fight with his titles and no injuries, then it will set up a super-fight heavyweight unification matchup with the winner of the Whyte v Wilder match sometime later next year.