Joshua – Cornish & Whyte – Minto this Saturday at O2 Arena, London, UK

By Boxing News - 09/07/2015 - Comments

whyte7By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night boxing fans in the UK will be seeing two interesting heavyweight fights between #2 WBC, #3 WBO, #13 IBF, #13 WBA Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) and Gary Cornish (21-0, 12 KOs) in the main event in a fight for the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title, and undefeated prospect Dillian Whyte (15-0, 12 KOs) and 40-year-old Brian Minto (41-9, 26 KOs) in a fight for the vacant WBC International Silver heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, England.

The always tough Minto is a replacement for 40-year-old Dominic Guinn, who recently had to pull out of the fight with the hard hitting Whyte last week.

If Joshua and Whyte emerge victorious in their fights, then they’ll be facing each other three months from now on December 12th in London in a fight for the vacant British heavyweight title.
“I’m not someone who gets unsettled easily,” Whyte said to skysports.com. “All I want is a good fight that will benefit me and benefit the fans. I don’t want to fight someone that as soon I hit them they get knocked out.”

Minto isn’t the type who goes down immediately upon getting hit. However, he has been stopped early in losing to Tony Grano by a 3rd round knockout in 2012, and Chris Arreola by a 4th round knockout in 2009, but those are the only instances during his long 13-year pro career in which he’s been taken out quickly.

Minto has been stopped by the big punching Joseph Parker by a 7th round retirement in 2014, and WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck by a 9th round stoppage in 2010. Minto, 5’11”, has spent of his career at heavyweight. He occasional moves down to cruiserweight every once in a while, but he’s mainly a heavyweight. I think Minto is arguably a better fighter than the guy he’s replacing in Dominic Guinn.

Minto is still fighting at a high level and doesn’t appear to have lost anything from his game. Minto has looked good recently in defeating Shane Cameron, Israel Ammann and Monty Filimaea in the last two years. Yeah, the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions have gotten a heck of a lot better in the last few years, but I don’t think Minto has lost a thing from his game. He’s just now forced to fight in divisions where there are more talented fighters.

Whyte, 6’4”, 250lbs, will have a five inch height and 30 pound weight advantage over the 5’11”, 220lb Minto, but that doesn’t mean that Whyte will roll over him immediately. I think Minto will be able to stand in the pocket and make it interesting for a little while until Whyte eventually chops him down with one of his big left hooks or right hands. Whyte has one of the best left hooks in the heavyweight division in my view, and he’s capable of knocking anyone out with that punch.

Joshua, 25, is targeting a fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by late 2016. At this point through it’s kind of a pipe dream on the 6’6” Joshua’s part, because he still needs to beat Gary Cornish on Saturday, Dillian Whyte on December 12th, and then likely EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper in early 2016, if Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport can get him the fight against the 6’5” Teper. If not, then I don’t see Joshua getting a title shot against Wladimir. But this is neither here nor there, because I don’t think Joshua will get past Whyte.

Joshua already lost to Whyte in the past when he was faster and lighter on his feet at 220lbs, and now that Joshua is 250 and slow, I don’t think he’s going to be able to compete with him. Whyte has improved while Joshua has become a weight lifter and messed up his body in my opinion.

“Hopefully I’ll be 14-0 by the end of this year so I think 20-0 would be good, or 18-0, by the time I fight Klitschko,” Joshua told ESPN.com. “Klitschko said he has five more fights in him and I don’t know if that includes the Tyson Fury fight next month. A lot of the guys he can fight are mainly up and coming fighters so hopefully that will open the door to the guys like myself.”

I think it’s a mistake for Joshua to assume that he’s going to get past Whyte. I mean, I don’t blame Joshua for looking past Whyte to a big money fight against Klitschko, but I don’t think it’s useful for Joshua to tease himself like that. When you look past talents like Whyte, it’s a thing that could eventually bite you on the backside in the long run when you get inside the ring with him and take a beating and wind up getting dropped on the canvas like a yo-yo over and over again like Joshua was dropped in his 2009 loss to Whyte.

I’m sure Whyte has dreams of fighting Klitschko too, but you don’t see Whyte disrespecting his opponents by harping on it. It would look bad if Whyte were to start counting his chicks before they’re even hatched the way that Joshua is.

“If I can get past Cornish, then move on to Dillian Whyte in December, then next year if I can keep on winning, then I think for sure he will still be around and me and Klitschko can get it on,” Joshua said.

There’s too many ‘ifs’ there for Joshua and not enough reality. I do think he can put a win next to his name in the win column for his mismatch against the 6’7” Gary Cornish, but that’s the only fight that Joshua can assume anything right now. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has found another over-matched opponent for him like he did for Joshua in his first 13-record padding fights, so Joshua will definitely win this fight. But once Joshua has to face Whyte, things are going to be much different for him with there being a great chance that Joshua will lose once against to Whyte, but this time by a knockout.

If Whyte batters and stops Joshua, then it puts Joshua back at square one in terms of his career. Joshua could forget about Klitschko, and start with the likely mismatches that would eat up another year of his career.



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