Lewis says Joshua shouldn’t fight Fury or Wladimir yet

07/12/2016 by Boxing News

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By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis thinks IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua lacks the experience to fight Tyson Fury or Wladimir Klitschko right now. Lewis wants to see Joshua get more fights under his belts before he looks to fight the likes of Fury or Wladimir.

Joshua doesn’t need to worry about Fury or Wladimir in 2016, because he’s not going to be fighting either of them this year. Fury is injured still, and there still isn’t a date for the rematch between him and Wladimir. It’s likely that the two giant heavyweights will fight in either late October or sometime in November.

Joshua talks Golovkin vs. Brook fight

07/12/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua thinks that weight could play an important part in the September 10 fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Kell Brook at the O2 Arena in London, UK. While Brook is going to be fighting in front of his own loyal British fans, he’s going to be giving away weight to the naturally bigger, stronger and dare I say more talented Triple G.

Joshua thinks the weight could be a factor in this fight because of Brook being a welterweight and needing to come up two divisions to fight Golovkin. It isn’t just weight though that will hamper Brook.

Anthony Joshua wants a serious contender for next defense

07/10/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) doesn’t want another fodder opponent for his next fight. Joshua, 26, plans on fighting before or during November, and he says he would like to fight a good contender. Whether that means Joshua will fall in behind whoever his promoter Eddie Hearn lines up is unclear. Gee, it looks like Joshua is starting to notice that he’s being matched against dreadful opposition.it look him long enough to notice.

Joshua may need to be assertive with Eddie if he wants a quality guy because he’s talking about wanting to match him against 37-year-old Bermane Stiverne, who recently lost to Deontay Wilder last year.

The boxing world wants to see Joshua defend against his IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker next, but it looks like Hearn is going to drag that fight out until 2017 before he lets it happen. Joshua’s next fight will likely be another voluntary defense. Read: another bottom dweller.

Hearn wants Joshua to fight Stiverne next

07/07/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: If Matchroom Sport promoter Barry Hearn gets his way, Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) will be making his next title defense of his IBF belt against 37-year-old former WBC champion Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) in November. Joshua has another voluntary defense available to him, so he can pretty fight anybody.

The last time Joshua fought, Matchroom picked out #13 IBF fringe contender Dominic Breazeale in a mismatch that took place on June 25. Joshua stopped Breazeale in the 7th round.

Managing a fighter’s rise

07/03/2016 by scottbells

By Scott Bells: I often read posts which talk about promoters and fighters taking easy fights and avoiding certain fighters to protect their unbeaten record. I thought it would be interesting to look at how a young fighter truly should get delivered and offer some insight into the thinking behind the development of a fighter. I will use a number of examples, but will cite heavyweight titlists Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua throughout as they are two unbeaten titlists who often get criticism for their opponents.

When a fighter starts off in the pro game the objective for a manager needs to be to help develop their technical ability in the ring, expose them to fight night and the fight in the ring under the lights and, of course protect their unbeaten record at every opportunity.

Joshua picks Fury to beat Wladimir, Wilder over Arreola

07/03/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) still doesn’t know who his next opponent will be in November or December, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be his IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker. In the meantime, Joshua gave his two cents on the heavyweight clashes matching WBC champion Deontay Wilder vs. challenger Chris Arreola on July 16, and the rematch between IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Joshua picks Wilder to beat the 35-year-old Arreola, and Fury to defeat the 40-year-old Wlladimir a second time. Joshua believes that Arreola will be a good test for Wilder to see where he’s at.

Joshua is too robotic and predictable, says McGuigan

07/01/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: Former world champion Barry McGuigan thinks IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) needs to keep improving by facing better opposition than what he’s currently facing now. McGuigan thinks Joshua looked robotic and very predictable in his recent title defense against #13 IBF Dominic Breazeale (17-1, 15 KOs) last month.

Joshua won the fight by a 7th round knockout, but he seemed to be relying on throwing 1-2 combinations all night long, and didn’t show much in terms of variety when it came to his punch assortment. McGuigan doesn’t see #1 IBF Joseph Parker giving Joshua any problems when the two of them get around to facing each other in the near future.

Thurman-Porter, Joshua-Breazeale ratings numbers

07/01/2016 by Boxing News

By Allan Fox: Last Saturday night’s card headlined by the welterweight clash between WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman and Shawn Porter brought in tremendous ratings on Showtime Boxing on CBS from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Thurman vs. Porter main event averaged 3.1 million viewers, according to Dan Rafael. The card itself averaged 2.4 million viewers. Those are tremendous ratings.

Having welterweights as good as Thurman and Porter face each other is a rare thing in the sport nowadays. The fight fans in the U.S saw this fight as an interesting one, so they gladly tuned in to see it. What helped matters is there was a great deal of marketing of the Thurman-Porter fight ahead of time. The fans knew the fight was taking place last Saturday, so the fans tuned in to see it in large numbers.

Joshua has until January 9 to face Joseph Parker

06/30/2016 by Boxing News

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) has less than five months to make his final voluntary defense before needing to negotiate a fight against his IBF mandatory challenger 24-year-old Joseph Parker (19-0, 16 KOs). Joshua’s defense against Parker is due by January 9, 2017. If he doesn’t defend it against him by that point, then he’ll likely be stripped of his title by the International Boxing Federation. Parker is going to be a tough out for Joshua, because unlike many of the opponents that the British heavyweight has been matched against since he turned pro, Parker will fight back. He’s not just going to stand there like a human punching bag with arms for 12 rounds hoping that Joshua gets tired at some point of throwing punches.

Joshua destroyed #13 IBF Dominic Breazeale (17-1, 15 KOs) by a 7th round knockout last Saturday night in Joshua’s first optional defense of his title at the O2 Arena in London, England. Breazeale was chosen by Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn in part due to him being unbeaten, a 2012 U.S Olympian, and because Joshua recently signed a multi-fight contract with U.S cable network Showtime.

Price needs two more fights before Joshua, says trainer

06/30/2016 by Boxing News

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By Scott Gilfoid: #11 WBO heavyweight contender David Price (20-3, 17 KOs) could be two fights away from getting a world title shot against unbeaten IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, according to Price’s trainer Dave Coldwell. Price, 32, took an easy fight in his last bout in stopping little known Vaclav Pejsar in the 2nd round last May on the undercard of the Tony Bellew vs. Ilunga Makabu card in Liverpool, UK.

That was Price’s first fight in a year. He looked slow and at least 20 pounds overweight. Price plans on stepping it up against a better fighter in his next fight. That might not be a good idea because he was getting nailed by Pejsar, and wound up marked up a little around the face. If a mediocre fighter like Pejsar was able to nail Price with shots, then you have to figure that a better fighter will be able to do a lot more.