I don't think Adam Smith, Sky's Head of Boxing, will allow Anthony Joshua to get away with not stepping up soon. Sky have invested a lot of money in Anthony Joshua and they need to see if he's the real deal. I totally agree about the AJ and Audley Harrison comparison lets hope Adam Smith is not as gullible as the guy from BBC that went all in on Audley.
I can well believe AJ wants to fight Tony Thompson as he's going to be a rapidly declining 44 in October and hes got a full time day job. Then again look how many rumours have there been about AJs step up according to his PR hype he should of fought Wladamir by now.
Jesus Christ. The guy has only had nine fights and has fought a former world title contender in Skelton. Lets give him 15 fights and see where he is at.
This is the problem that has been created hyping up the fake Anthony Joshua the casuals actually believe that the likes of Skelton, Sprott ,Bahktov are World Class.
The thing is that the heavyweight division is so bad that you can take a big step up and still be fighting someone pretty terrible. Look at fat old Tony Thompson, he's ranked as the 10th best heavyweight in the World by ring magazine, just behind fat, well past it Chagaev who's at 9. Thompsons recent success and Chagaevs ranking says more about the terrible state of heavyweight boxing than how good either man is. If Joshua is as good as being hyped then he should be able to beat the likes of Thompson and Chagaev right now.
This is true. Look how high Fury's ranked, based on beating a few mediocre fighters. Wilder's record is appalling, and he's got the WBC title ! The division is horrible.
If the welterweight division was as weak as heavyweight then guys like Junior Witter and Gianluca Branco would still be cracking the top ten. That's how bad heavyweight boxing is. Now would anyone have a problem with an Olympic gold medalist welterweight fighting Witter or Branco just because they've had less than 15 fights?
Dillion Whyte and Hughie Fury have both fought a better opponent than Joshua yet are ranked lower....do believe Fury and Parker but not sure on Whyte to beat Joshua at this point.
Fury has fought a better opponent but Whyte hasnt, Joshua's high ranking is due to his WBC international title i think.
So AJ is fighting Zumbano Love in his next fight, a man who's been KOd in 2 of his last 3 fights I guess he's worried about stepping up. Roll on casuals defending him but why doesn't he just actually wait and be fit to fight Kevin Johnson the 30th May ?
In my opinion AJ has the right attributes to go all the way. It's been a while since I've seen someone in the HW division who once sniffs a stoppage goes all guns blazing with speed and power, and KO power at that. Granted that one day he may get caught with the big counter from a hard hitter as he does go in a little open but it's the HW division and anything can and will happen. Think the lad needs a break and the backing of all us fight fans cos he could possibly be a British World HW in a couple of years, who knows. Let's hope so hey.....