Joshua opponent named for Newcastle April 4th

[Clint Magnum]

He's fighting Jason Gavern.
With Bradley Saunders commonwealth title fight postponed is this fight big enough to justify a sky card and appease the thousands who already bought tickets?

[Alba]

considering there is a week to go, this isnae a bad opponent and should be competative for a while and will be good for Joshua to shake off his ring rust.

[Stuarty]

Not the best card but I'll watch it regardless. Good to see Joshua back although it'll probably be another early night. Simmons and Dickinson will be decent. Would be good to see Charlie Flynn get some exposure.

[black panther]

Bless old Gavern - he posts here too doesn't he?

Isn't much more than a glorified spar though unfortunately. Joshua could end this in a round if he wanted - he'll probably end it in the third.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Ah, the classic 'yardstick against XXX's performance' fight.

[danamba7]

Is this the Prizefighter WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! guy?

[surfthehurf]

FINALLY, HE HAS AN OPPONENT!

Sadly, Matchroom must have just taken whoever was out there looking for a payday. I'd be amazed if AJ took longer than a round to iron out this guy. A fight is a fight though, and I just like to see every step Anthony Joshua takes to becoming world champ.
After he stops Kingpin then we're looking at British title surely

[surfthehurf]

Gavern's record (26-19-4) is similar to that of AJ's 5th opponent, Hector Alfredo Avila (22-15-1). The latter was bombed out in 2mins

[Batley18]

Announced today. I get that Joshua has been injured and wants to keep active, but I am not sure what this proves other than an extra win and an extra KO to the record. Surely sparring better quality fighters in the gym will do more than this obvious opportunity to inflate the record.

Joshua doesn't need a buffed up CV, he is way ahead of where he should be, but needs to set up now. Johnson was a great fight, Chisora or Price next would be good. I will be disappointed if we see another bum with no chance.

[GooalaShooola]

Given that the Kingpin fight is so soon, I wasn't expecting to have even heard of AJ's opponent for the 4th so I'm pleasantly surprised.

[GooalaShooola]

Announced today. I get that Joshua has been injured and wants to keep active, but I am not sure what this proves other than an extra win and an extra KO to the record. Surely sparring better quality fighters in the gym will do more than this obvious opportunity to inflate the record.

Joshua doesn't need a buffed up CV, he is way ahead of where he should be, but needs to set up now. Johnson was a great fight, Chisora or Price next would be good. I will be disappointed if we see another bum with no chance.

Got to remember that Joshua fighting in Newcastle was announced before he pulled out of the original Johnson date in January. I've got no doubts they had planned to give him a more meaningful fight on this bill before injury intervened. It would've been wrong of them to pull him from the Newcastle date altogether though as doubtlessly his name sold a lot of tickets... not to mention, can you imagine the state of that bill without AJ on it?

[dbf]

Isn't Galven buddies with Hearn. Not a hard choice for matchroom. Shocking card.

[Boxing Prospect]

If Gavern looks like he did against Wilder, untrained and fat, then this going to be even worse than we suspected. Saw a clip of his fight in China and the Chinese guy in that was crude and did Gavern quickly so Joshua should be able to do the same.

[surfthehurf]

yeah the card is unknowns, not sure if they are even Matchroom fighters. At least it's definitely not PPV!

[Rexob]

Tyson Fury was fighting John McDermott for the English belt in his 11th bout, John McDermott would be a better fight I reckon (not by much) Has he retired now or will that be another fight down the pipe line? for the OLYMPIC gold medallist?

[Paullow]

Not the best card but I'll watch it regardless. Good to see Joshua back although it'll probably be another early night. Simmons and Dickinson will be decent. Would be good to see Charlie Flynn get some exposure.

You're being pretty generous here . Think yourself lucky you don;t have tickets

[Stuarty]

Not the best card but I'll watch it regardless. Good to see Joshua back although it'll probably be another early night. Simmons and Dickinson will be decent. Would be good to see Charlie Flynn get some exposure.

You're being pretty generous here . Think yourself lucky you don;t have tickets

Ever the optimist mate I was actually toying with the idea of going a month or so ago lol.

[surfthehurf]

Worth noting that Anthony Joshua's debut opponent was unbeaten. His record was 8-0.

[jameswilson]

Tyson Fury was fighting John McDermott for the English belt in his 11th bout, John McDermott would be a better fight I reckon (not by much) Has he retired now or will that be another fight down the pipe line? for the OLYMPIC gold medallist?

Who did he box in his 12th and 13th bout?

[brilo33]

remember him on prize fighter, pretty gun ho fighter if i remember, early ko i would think

[Tristram Shandy]

I have feeling Joshua will 'carry' this bloke a round or two to shed some rust before Johnson, BUT the truth is he could do him in the first minute if he chose to. Didn't expect anyone too tasty with the Johnson fight days away but this is a poor match.