Joshua: Whyte might take me past 3 rounds

By Boxing News - 11/03/2015 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: A cocky Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) speculates that undefeated Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) could be the guy to finally take him past the 3rd round to extend him a little when they meet up on December 12th in their fight on Sky from the O2 Arena in London, UK.

Joshua, 26, feels certain that he’s going to be walking out of the ring with the British heavyweight title in his possession on the night. The only thing that Joshua isn’t sure about is whether Whyte will be able to take him past the 3rd round.

Of Joshua’s 14 mismatches since he turned pro, he’s only gone to the 3rd round in fights against Jason Gavern and Konstantin Airich. The obvious reason why no one has gone past the 3rd round against him is because he’s faced little more than gawd awful opposition.

When you fight the guys that Joshua has fought, it’s only obvious that you’re going to get a ton of knockouts. That’s why I’m really surprised that the early victories have gone to Joshua’s head the way they have, because he should know from looking at them that pretty much any heavyweight in the top 15 would have knocked out all 14 of those guys in the same way.

However, the smarter heavyweights would know that the point of fighting no hopers like Joshua has is to get rounds in so that they could work on their technique and stamina. Joshua hasn’t done that. He’s just went out there looking to obliterate them as fast as humanely possible, as if the guys had a chance to beat him.

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That obviously was a mistake on Joshua’s part because he’s not improving by blasting out sorrowful opposition like Gary Cornish, Jason Gavern, Raphael Zumbano Love and Michael Sprott.

“I’m sure Dillian is potentially the man to take me past three rounds. It’ll be tough for him to do that, though, because I’m going to be ready,” Joshua said via skysports.com. “It’s just like the rest of the fights I’ve been in. I’ll approach it with the same attitude that I’ve approached the other fights in my professional career. I don’t want to try and do anything too over the top.”

I think Joshua’s ego is blown up to tremendous proportions from the wins he’s piled up. If he really thinks that Whyte is in the same class as the guys that he’s beaten in the past, then someone needs to sit Joshua down and explain to him the reality of what’s been going on with his career since he turned pro in 2013.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been feeding him fodder opponents up until now, and Joshua should know that. There’s no way that Joshua should be bragging about himself and tooting his own horn after beating the kind of opponents that he’s faced. I mean, if you had Dillian Whyte fighting the same guys that Joshua has fought, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knocked them all out in the 1st round if that was his desire. He could run out there and swing for the fences to get his opposition out immediately, and I’m sure he would.

The thing is Whyte wouldn’t likely brag about. He doesn’t do that with the poor opposition he’s faced. Whyte admits that he’s fought a lot of poor opponents. In other words, it hasn’t gone to his head that he’s been able to KO many of them in 4 rounds or less. Whyte has his feet firmly on the ground.

“Once I get past him, it’ll be interesting to hear what the next man has to say,” Joshua said. “Whether it’s against Dillian or anyone else, I’ll approach with the same attitude and the same hunger. There is attention around this fight, which gives us the more reason to go for a 12-round war.”

This fight is definitely going to be a war, because Joshua’s self-confidence is at the point where he feels he can KO any man in the heavyweight division by him going out and trying to run them over immediately. Besides that, Joshua doesn’t have the mobility to box an opponent. He’s too slow on his feet, too heavyweight, and too used to slugging it out in his fights for him to try some other approach. I don’t think he would even bother trying something different.



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