By Jake Tiernan: Gareth A. Davies disagrees with Tony Bellew’s opinion that Anthony Joshua isn’t ready for Deontay Wilder next after his mostly timid, gun-shy performance against Robert Helenius last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
Gareth is trying to whitewash Joshua’s timid, gunshy performance by saying he was just being “cautious.” The truth is, Joshua looked like a fighter that had a bad case of battle fatigue from being in the warzone for too long.
Joshua is clearly shell-shocked in a way that he’s never going to come out to be the fighter he once was. It doesn’t matter how much time AJ is given for R&R back at garrison, away from the front lines.
He needs an excellent motivational coach that can psyche him up enough for him to fight aggressively like he used to because that’s the only chance he has of beating Wilder.
Joshua has seen too much and can’t snap out of it as more mentally tough fighters do after being bombarded.
Bellew likely noted how it took Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) until the seventh round for him to find the courage to throw his right hand because he was too worried about his chin betraying him if Helenius had belted him a good one with one of his counter shot.
AJ didn’t want to move in range to walk onto a punch, and it was only after Helenius started showing signs of fatigue in the seventh that he became brave enough to throw a right hand of his own with force.
If Joshua fights like that against Wilder by staying on the outside, just flicking jabs, he will get blasted into outer space by one of the Bronze Bomber’s right-hand bombs.
“No, not gun-shy tonight; cautious. There’s a difference,” said Gareth A. Davies to Boxing King Media about Anthony Joshua looking timid against Robert Helenius, afraid to throw punches. “yes, he needed to do more work. Yes, he needed to put more shots together.
“We’re always going to be critical of Anthony Joshua because we want the world from him. He just delivered a hellacious seventh round knockout. If he’d done it two rounds earlier, a lot of people bet on him in the third and fifth rounds.
Bellew didn’t say who Joshua should fight to get him ready for Wilder, but someone like Filip Hrgovic would be a good option. He has Olympic experience, can punch, and is tough.
The only problem with Hrgovic is the rabbit punches that he frequently throws. Joshua won’t last long against Hrgovic if he’s getting clobbered with rabbit shots all night while the referee ignores the illegal blows, like the one that worked Hrvovic’s fight with Demsey McKean last Saturday night.
“When I was coming in tonight, all the punters were saying, ‘Third round, fifth round.’ I thought fifth, but he took his time. Nothing wrong with that. Don’t forget Helenius knows his way around a ring, he’s no mug, and you saw that in there tonight.
“What and not earn 60 million U.S dollars? What is Tony on?” said Gareth when told that Tony Bellew told DAZN Live that he doesn’t want to see Joshua fight Wilder next.
“I don’t want to start a row with Tony, but why? He wants him to have another fight first, yeah?
“He’s going to earn 100 million fighting Tyson Fury. He doesn’t need to do anything else after that. There are two fighters that Anthony Joshua needs to fight to end the era. He tried twice against Oleksandr Usyk. We saw an improved performance in the second fight.
“He did a brilliant job. He wasn’t there technically for Usyk. There are two guys left. Wilder & Fury and I hope we get both of them and
then I hope we get Usyk and Wilder and maybe Joyce as well, by the way, or the winner of Joyce and Zhang.
