Is Anthony Joshua being rushed into world level title contention with Charles Martin?

Yes, but as he said himself, he weighed up his likely fights over the next year and weighed up the guys he'll likely have to face in the following year after becoming champ and the level and names are similar.

I think it probably robs him of a final European level fight and maybe throws him into a fight with someone in the top 7 or 8 maybe two fights sooner.

Remains to be seen if it's the right decision.

 

He is being rushed, but just think Hearn/Brook with the welterweight IBF title and it will look rather similar at heavyweight assuming AJ beats Charles.

The IBF rankings are interesting, Charles champion, no ranking at 1 or 2 and then we have at 3 Teper, 4 AJ, 5 Takam and 6 Parker.

The rest Glazkov, Cunningham, Ruiz, Stiverne, Pulev, Helenius, Chisora, Ustinov and Breazeale.

Now that hardly send shivers down the spine if you're AJ or Hearn. As depressing as it sounds Hearn could wrap this title up for rather a long time just like he has with Brook at welterweight.

 

^^^Exactly.

The rankings don't mean a great deal at the moment. Nobody is falling over themselves to fight Martin - put AJ in there and it's a money fight. The rankings will change.

 

Martin is the next step up his career should be going in, regardless of whether or not a title is on the line. The title is pretty irrelevant seeing as he can just fight who he was going to fight without interruption. If anything, having a title will kick his progression to the top level up a notch rather than being coddled every step of the way there. We might actually see Joshua take a risky fight in the future.

 

Its worth the risk

Making history as 16-0-0-0 (KO 16) first Heavyweight World champion with a 100% KO ratio :smoke

 

Yes they are being rushed to a world title. Though based on the fact they were looking for an eliminator with Takam prior to this opportunity they were not rushed as much as some would think. I suspect they would have been looking for a title shot near the end of the year anyway, if not early next year.

Though he's not being rushed to world level. Lets be real here Martin is totally unproven on the world level. He was some what lucky against Glazkov and even Glazkov's actual ability is not reflected by his record, he should have 3 losses on his ledger. I wouldn't rate Glazkov as a top 20 fighter with those losses, which makes Martin himself far from world class.

 

Who cares it's time to sort out who tye best heavy weights are anyways ..

 

Are you serious with those threads already ? Charles Martin have worse resume than Whyte even.

He got lucky to get a title shot and his opponent to receive an injury.Probably was going to be robbed like few of the last Glazkov`s other opponents.

Nobody knows who Ch. Martin is,he holds paper title noone cares about ,its good fight for Joshua,better then European title anyway.

 

Well after this fight, I want to see him defend against top 10 fighters or try and unify.

 

It's all about money and getting it asap with the least resistance possible. Martin is a complete bum, but there are much tougher guys who he'll have to take on. I don't see a bum carousel like Wilder being allowed post Martin.

 

Before Martin got the golden ticket he had only beaten a single low level top100 opponent. He should never have gotten the fight with Glaskov, and was probably meant as cannonfodder to not hand Glazkov the belt outright.
Then the injury happened and the rest is history.

There's a reason why Joshua is the massive favorite here. Although there are some questions about Joshi's punch resistance.

 

Yes he's being rushed and yes it could backfire. He's not the real deal Holyfield or anything like that who's tougher and more skillful than anybody boxing in the world. That said, if he can manage to not get caught he can learn a lot very quickly. Also, didn't Parker pass on this "bum"?

 

I agree with everything apart from the point I highlighted. Hearns clearly has an agreement with the major touters and stubhub to give them a large number of tickets before they even go on sale. This is why they apparently sell in minutes. In reality a large number of the tickets go directly to touters.

 

Lets not act like Martin is some World beater here. If Joshua loses it is because he wasn't any good to begin with and because his management up to this point has not put him in there with someone who can punch back yet.

If Martin has any Chin I think he will knock out Joshua who has a Glass Jaw.