By Scott Gilfoid: A heavily muscled and slow looking #7 WBC heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (11-0, 11 KOs) 36-year-old journeyman Jason Gavern (26-20-4, 11 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage on Saturday night at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom.
Joshua knocked Gavern down four times in the fight. The fight was stopped after Joshua dropped Gavern with a left hand in the 3rd. Referee Victor Loughlin stopped the fight at 1:21 of the round. Joshua was putting everything he had in every shot, and it’s not surprising that he got Gavern out of there early. But with that said, Joshua looked slow, flat-footed and tired by the 3rd round. You can only imagine what would happen to Joshua if he were to be dragged into the later rounds of a fight against someone who was throwing big shots back at him.
The negative from this performance by Joshua was the fact that he struggled to defeat a journeyman in a clean fashion. Joshua was dirty in hitting Gavern twice while he was on the canvas and nailing him with a rabbit punch for one knockdown. In looking at the clean way that Deontay Wilder knocked Gavern out in four rounds in August of 2014, I think Wilder looked a lot better in doing a job on Gavern. Wilder appeared to be carrying Gavern until the 4th rather than him trying to blast him out. With Joshua, he was clearly giving it his all to try and get Gavern out as fast as possible, as if he were trying to improve on the job that Wilder did on Gavern.
Joshua looked out of wind at times in chasing the pudgy looking Gavern around the ring. Had this been Deontay, I think he would have knocked Gavern out with a single right hand in the 1st round if he were trying to prove a point.
Gavern was able to land some nice body shots. He also nailed Joshua with some nifty hooks to the head that seemed to anger Joshua. I’m not sure what expectations Joshua had going into this fight, but if he thought he was going to shut Gavern out completely without him landing anything, then I think Joshua needs to come to terms with the kind of heavyweight he is. He’s not a one-punch knockout artist like Deontay Wilder, and never will be. Joshua lacks explosiveness with his punches, and he push them instead of throwing them with the speed and authority that you see from one-punch KO guys like Deontay. Joshua’s jab was pretty good, as he was able to hurt Gavern with it in the 1st round. But other than the jab, Joshua doesn’t look like he’s improving as a fighter. He actually looks like he’s going backwards with his career rather than forwards. I would favor the 2013 version of Joshua over the 2015 version. I think he was a much better fighter in 2013 than he is now. Someone needs to talk some sense into Joshua’s head to get him to lose some muscle weight so he can pick up speed, because he not look good at 245.
The fact that Joshua keeps putting on muscle weight is worrisome. If he’s 245 right now at just 25, I think it’s only a matter of time before he adds another 20 pounds of muscle and finds himself fighting at 260. I don’t care who you are as a fighter, you’re not going to do well fighting at 260. It’s just not going to happen. Joshua needs to stop lifting weights and focus instead on sprinting and eating light. He doesn’t need all that useless bodybuilding type muscle that he’s been adding to his physique. Joshua looks more like a fighter who is about to enter a bodybuilding contest than someone who is boxer. In boxing, it’s not the more muscular guy that wins the fights. It’s the smarter guys that use their speed and talent to win. This isn’t news to anyone, as everyone is aware of the fact that the faster guys tend to do well in the sport.
For this fight, Joshua, 25, came in at a career high of 245 pounds. That was five pounds heavier than his previous career high of 240. The extra weight made Joshua look slow on his feet and with his punches. Never fast to begin with since turning pro in 2013, Joshua looked a lot slower in his movement and with his punches. He reminded me a lot of a slower version of Larry Olubamiwo, a fighter who was known for having tons of muscles earlier in his career. Joshua looked very slow and plodding as he followed Gavern around the ring in the three rounds. What’s interesting is that Joshua made Gavern look fast in comparison. I mean, Gavern has never been known for being a fast heavyweight, but he looked much faster and more nimble on his feet than the 245 pound Joshua did. This is Gavern 244, which isn’t a good weight for him.
Joshua fought an arguably dirty fight in hitting Gavern on two separate occasions after he was knocked down. After the fight, Joshua appeared heated when asked about why he hit Gavern while he was down on the canvas. Joshua said “He wasn’t down. He was grabbing my knees.” Unfortunately the replay showed that Gavern was indeed down. Why Joshua would lose his cool when questioned about this is unclear. What was clear was that it didn’t play too well Joshua losing his cool, as the crowd didn’t cheer him when he tried to make an excuse for hitting Gavern when he was down. I don’t know why Joshua lost his cool because it wasn’t as if he was getting hit back in the fight. Gavern was little more than a walking punching bag with arms. I could understand Joshua getting heated if he were getting brained by a powerful heavyweight hitting him in the chin with devastating shots, but that’s not what this was. It was a mismatch. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn found a journeyman for Joshua to look good against in a showcase fight for him, and Joshua failed to impress. It’s as simple as that. He wasn’t graceful and light on his feet like Deontay Wilder was in his 4th round stoppage win over Gavern last year. It wasn’t even close to being as impressive as Wilder’s performance.
The first knockdown by Joshua was from a right hand rabbit punch to the back of Gavern’s head. Gavern protested to the referee, but he was having none of it and counted the rabbit punch knockdown.
I think Joshua needs to lose around 20 to 25 pounds of muscle weight if he wants to compete with the best heavyweights in the division. If you throw Joshua in the ring with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder right now, I see Joshua getting knocked clean out in two or three rounds because he’s slow and lumbering with all the excess muscle that he’s put on his frame since turning pro in 2013. You have to remember that Joshua started his pro career at a slim 220 in 2013, and he’s put on 25 pounds of muscle in just two years. That’s 12 pounds of muscle per year that Joshua has put on. But the thing is Joshua has put most of the weight on in the last year. I think he’s added 20 of the 25 pounds in the last year alone. I think that’s way too much weight. Lennox Lewis weighed around 250 in his prime of his career after starting his pro career weighing in the low 230s. However, Lewis put the weight on slowly during his career. He didn’t just throw on 20 pounds in one year, and he was a lot faster than Joshua. I don’t see the added muscle as having helped Joshua at all. if anything, it hurts him in a huge way and I don’t see how he’s going to be able to beat any of the quality heavyweights in the division. At this point, I think even Tyson Fury could beat Joshua because he would keep him on the outside all night long and out-box him with ease.
All in all, I think Joshua’s stock goes after this fight. He looked horribly slow, flat-footed and way too muscular. Like I said, I think Joshua needs to trim off 25 pounds of muscle weight if he wants to compete against the best in the heavyweight division. If he tries to fight the top guys right now with him carrying all that useless muscle, I see him getting dragged into the deep end and knocked out. The thing with muscle weight is that once you put it on it takes a while to take it off in the proper way, and it’s sometimes debilitating after a fight takes all the weight off.
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