BoxRec

As I said on the British scene, these opponents need to be a thing of the past for him now. I know Love extended Martin etc but enough is enough surely???

Chill...

He will be fighting Johnson on the 30th, that will be the real test.

Johnson has never been KOd, Joshua has never been past 3 rounds so it should be interesting. Johnson just said he wants to KO Joshua but that is probably him just trying to sell the fight.

bullshit.
didnt charles martin fight him in his 20th fight
and eric molina fought him and not fighting wilder

What? You think you should be called Nostradamus for predicting a former Olympian with bright future in the heavyweight division fights knockovers in his early fights? Hold the front fornicating page, this has never happened before!

I wonder about some of you lot, I really do.

fergusg wrote:

SNG wrote:What? You think you should be called Nostradamus for predicting a former Olympian with bright future in the heavyweight division fights knockovers in his early fights? Hold the front effing page, this has never happened before!

I was joking! Look at the emoticon.

Oh right! Sorry.

Long day at work, my sarcasm detector is a little wonky.

I'm not losing faith in aj just the gulf in class in the division

I like prospects to be active, and they're simply not going to fight high calibre opponents every time out. I would MUCH rather he fight a scrub before fighting Johnson than just waiting to fight Johnson.

If I were ever gifted an Olympian into a stable I ran, that guy would have 15-20 fights his first year as a pro. Activity makes him money, builds his reputation, garners fame, and shows him what the sport can do for him.

After "x" amount of time though, you risk becoming a bottom feeder like the hype job Wilder. And no one wants that.

This was a perfectly reasonable matchup for a guy in his 11th fight and with an even bigger fight just a few weeks away. If this was the biggest fight he was having this year criticism would be fine, but as a tuneup and confidence builder before Johnson, don't see cause for a moan.

Give the guy a break. For one he is fighting a world class operator in 3 weeks time, do you really expect them to chuck him in against someone too dangerous? Whatever you think of Love he had 47 fights under his belt and even managed to take Shannon Briggs 12 rounds last year. AJ is showing tremendous power and a great jab, I just hope he can go all the way.

fergusg wrote:Sorry guys, but when AJ faces an opponent and many of us are speculating how many minutes the bout will last, rather than rounds, then fights like this becomes a monumental waste of time.

So you would rather he not fight until Johnson?

Activity is never a bad thing. It's when you ONLY fight the Raphael Love's three or four times per year that this becomes an issue.

fergusg wrote:

punchoutsb wrote:

fergusg wrote:Sorry guys, but when AJ faces an opponent and many of us are speculating how many minutes the bout will last, rather than rounds, then fights like this becomes a monumental waste of time.

So you would rather he not fight until Johnson?

Activity is never a bad thing. It's when you ONLY fight the Raphael Love's three or four times per year that this becomes an issue.

Yes. I'm not a fan of obvious mismatches. Joshua's been involved in too many for my liking.

Fair play.

We disagree on that. I'm not a fan of mismatches, but there is a time and a place for everything. If you're on again in three weeks and want a quick win, I'd say why not. Build more confidence.

punchoutsb wrote:

fergusg wrote:Sorry guys, but when AJ faces an opponent and many of us are speculating how many minutes the bout will last, rather than rounds, then fights like this becomes a monumental waste of time.

So you would rather he not fight until Johnson?

Activity is never a bad thing. It's when you ONLY fight the Raphael Love's three or four times per year that this becomes an issue.

Exactly, well said. He's just come off an injury too, this fight was just a warm up for Johnson. Even Tyson fought his fair share of journeymen with far worse records than Love at the start of his career, in fact the first decent opponent Tyson fought was in his 18th fight.

Controversial wrote:Give the guy a break. For one he is fighting a world class operator in 3 weeks time, do you really expect them to chuck him in against someone too dangerous? Whatever you think of Love he had 47 fights under his belt and even managed to take Shannon Briggs 12 rounds last year. AJ is showing tremendous power and a great jab, I just hope he can go all the way.

What World Class Operator are we talking about here? He is fighting a journeyman with wasted potential!

They are obviously bringing Joshua along somewhat carefully considering his level of talent and for now it's ok.
That said it seems clear Anthony is well above the kind of opponents he's been boxing and it's only a matter of time before the opponents have to be upped.
Joshua looks very good though, how long people will be prepared to put up with it in the UK is something you might want to ask them.
Joshua is 25 and has only been a pro for less than 2 years and had 12 fights so he could still have a number of these types of contests, so for now I'm ok with it as I feel they're fine tuning him and then will make their move.
I think the way he's going it will be at least another 4-5 fights before anyone serious is brought it.

fergusg wrote:That was absolutely disgraceful matchmaking!

I'm losing faith in AJ's talent if he's still being matched against amateur white-collar calibre type opposition.

The fight only lasted as long as it did, because Joshua refrained from throwing any punches during the early stages of the bout!

Simply put: AJ carried his fleshy opponent to give the punters some value for money, rather than blasting him out in 30 seconds flat!

Not sure what fighting a mismatch has to do with Joshua's talent? It might say something about the people matching his fights though.

In any case we'll find out a lot more about him next start against "Kingpin" Johnson.

36, including Vitali have tried to KO Johnson and none has succeeded. Will Joshua be the man to do it?

Its actually the other way, he has been moved along quickly. For someone who has only had 12 fights he has already fought TWO top 50 opponents and by the end of this month it will be THREE.

Tonights fight was a waste of time but then most fights are a waste of time.

http://www.independentworldboxingrankings.com

Just look at the numbers, many fighters highly ranked don't have them despite the fact they have conned their way to 25-0 and a title shot.

Lennox wrote:Its actually the other way, he has been moved along quickly. For someone who has only had 12 fights he has already fought TWO top 50 opponents and by the end of this month it will be THREE.

Tonights fight was a waste of time but then most fights are a waste of time.

http://www.independentworldboxingrankings.com

Just look at the numbers, many fighters highly ranked don't have them despite the fact they have conned their way to 25-0 and a title shot.

That's a good point.
The concerns I have as someone unaware of what goes on behind the doors of the gym are more in line with the duration of Joshua's fights.
But that immediately prompts me to think of Deontay Wilder who went 6 straight years at 32-0 32 KO's and not a single fight past the 4th round out boxing Bermane Stiverne over 12 to get a Heavyweight strap and that was only recently so who knows.

Lennox wrote:Its actually the other way, he has been moved along quickly. For someone who has only had 12 fights he has already fought TWO top 50 opponents and by the end of this month it will be THREE.

Tonights fight was a waste of time but then most fights are a waste of time.

http://www.independentworldboxingrankings.com

Just look at the numbers, many fighters highly ranked don't have them despite the fact they have conned their way to 25-0 and a title shot.

I don't think there's been a time in boxing history when there were more guys with totally padded records ranked in the top 15. There are so many titles and so many risk free paths to them it is ridiculous.

Controversial wrote:Give the guy a break. For one he is fighting a world class operator in 3 weeks time, do you really expect them to chuck him in against someone too dangerous? Whatever you think of Love he had 47 fights under his belt and even managed to take Shannon Briggs 12 rounds last year. AJ is showing tremendous power and a great jab, I just hope he can go all the way.

This guy gets what Im saying! Sounds like someone with some sense. A lot of people on this forum criticize like beer swilling rednecks straight from the trailer park.

Love has also been very, very active. He probably shouldn't be fighting so often after fighting as much as he has in the past year, either.

Love was a fine opponent in my opinion given that Johnson (nowhere near world class as someone suggested but a good test) is coming soon. I doubt that most 11 fight prospects would've fought so quickly after their last bout, and I don't see why fighting Love, who went 8 and 10 with Eric Molina and Charles Martin respectively, is worse than doing nothing.

And while beating Love in this manner doesn't prove much, it continues the trend of Joshua winning more convincingly than most other prospects and contenders did against the same opposition.

Joshua is fighting Kingpin in 3 weeks. Love is just a tuneup. Chill dude. It's not like he's only fighting the likes of Love.

Lennox wrote:Its actually the other way, he has been moved along quickly. For someone who has only had 12 fights he has already fought TWO top 50 opponents and by the end of this month it will be THREE.

Tonights fight was a waste of time but then most fights are a waste of time.

http://www.independentworldboxingrankings.com

Just look at the numbers, many fighters highly ranked don't have them despite the fact they have conned their way to 25-0 and a title shot.

I agree on both points. Beating Love doesn't mean much, but not every fight coming up is supposed to be big. Look at some of the guys Ali, Foreman, Tyson fought coming up in the first couple years. They make Love look good.

Even to this day Mike Tyson knockout compilations are as popular as ever, most boxing fans love to see Tyson smashing guys all over the ring, snapping necks back and generally looking feroucious. But if you check out the vast majority of the spectacular knockouts you will see opponents with records like -

Hector Mercedes 0-3-0
Trent Singleton 1-3-0
Larry Sims 3-16-3
Robert Colay 6-7-1
Ricardo Spain 1-0-0 but 184lbs
Sterling Benjamin 5-6-1
Mark Young 8-6-0

That was not a farce at all. Joshua did what he had to do. He was off for 5 months. He bounced that dude off the canvas! He is fighting again on May 30th. What do you want? Zumbano and Johnson are perfect opponents at this point for his career. He is following the stepping stone of gatekeeping and doing it more impressively than other opponents vs. Zumbano did.