Martin vs. Joshua

By Scott Gilfoid: The April 9 title fight between IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) and Great Britain’s Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) failed to bring in a lot of viewers on Showtime for their fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

The Martin-Joshua fight was televised in the States and it brought in a low average of just 275,000 viewers with a peak of 317,000 viewers for the fight, according to the Nielsen Media Research. There are couple of reasons for he incredibly low viewing numbers.

By Jeff Aranow: Unbeaten Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) made easy work of a timid IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) in stopping him in the 2nd round on Saturday night to capture his IBF title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Joshua knocked Martin down twice in the 2nd round with right hands.

By Scott Gilfoid: For some reason, IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) will be an underdog tonight when he enters the ring against unbeaten challenger Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Martin’s best chance of winning the fight is to take the heavily muscled 244lb Joshua into deep waters tonight before going for a knockout.

Joshua hasn’t had to go deep into his fights thus far due to the soft match-making that’s been done for him by his promoter Eddie Hearn, and there are some real concerns whether he has the stamina to fight longer fights. Joshua has transformed his once lean physique with lots of muscle since he turned pro, and it’s quite possible that the muscle would cause him to gas out in the later rounds.

By Scott Gilfoid: Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch says he thinks Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) will defeat IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) in their fight tonight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Froch doesn’t really given any concrete reasons why he believes Joshua will win other than him being a good friend of his.

I’m not sure if that’s a good reason to be picking a fighter to win. I mean, you kind of have to look at more than the fact that he’s your friend when analyzing whether he’s going to win or not, don’t you? Froch says Martin has a chance if he can land a shot at some point in the fight. Froch believes that Martin won’t just come in and give up the IBF belt to Joshua without putting up a tough fight first.

By Scott Gilfoid: Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) says he’s fully prepared for his title defense on Saturday night against unbeaten and highly hyped Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England. Martin had done his homework well in scouting out Joshua’s past fights and spotted the chinks in his armor.

Martin says he’s going to break the easy to hit 6’6” Joshua and then throttle him until he’s finished. Martin, 29, plans on using Joshua’s natural inclinations to slug against him by countering him until he either implodes or learns that he’s going to need to become more conventional by boxing instead of slugging.

By Scott Gilfoid: By Edmond Stucey: IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) weighed in slightly more than the heavily muscled challenger Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) on Friday in coming in at 245 pounds at the weigh-in for their fight on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Joshua weighed in one pound less than Martin at 244lbs. Both fighters looked identical in size. The only difference between them was Joshua’s bodybuilding physique he was sporting. Joshua, 6’6”, looked like he had trained for a bodybuilding physique rather than a championship boxing match.