Bad move on AJ's and Fast Car if he takes this fight with Martin.AJ will be unable to hide from the big boys and Eddie will only be able to protect him for about a year before a manditory comes knocking on the door.Better to KO some hapless "contender" and learn his trade better.With his drawing power and money train which follows him with PPV buys,AJ can afford to put title ambitions off for another year or so.
A year could be three hot dog fights along the line of Molina, Duhaupas and Spzilka, maybe £10m in the bank.
SKY and Eddie desperately need to get leverage against Furys/Hennessey, so a belt makes sense. The average fan doesn't know the difference and SKY will have them thinking Joshua is at least equal with Fury. I haven't seen Martin fight, but I'm not convinced it's an easy fight for AJ. Joshua's competition has been so weak, and he didn't exactly have an easy fight with Whyte. Martin might be a B-level or C-level titlist but there's not a huge deal of evidence to say Joshua is anything above that.
IBF HW is now a plastic belt. However, like previous posts have said, this will be milked by sky/EH, as most AJ fans won't know any different
Thinking about it ... Eddie might want to give Martin a low-ball offer that Martin will be forced to turn down. If he accepts then they have the chance at the IBF and the leverage it will bring them, and then they just hope AJ wins, which is very possible with hometown advantages fair and unfair. But they probably want to milk some minor "leverage"/publicity/mileage out of having a titlist "refuse an offer" to fight AJ. That's how cynical the business is. I'd rather the fight happened though. It's a decent fight that would raise the prestige/profile of whoever happens to win.