This weekend features the biggest heavyweight fight since Lennox Lewis retired. In terms of public interest it is the biggest since Lewis fought Tyson in 2002. The highly hyped, obviously talented young knockout artist versus the veteran kingpin of the division in front of 90,000 screaming fans, a passing of the torch or a reset of the status quo? This is part two of a three part series of articles I will be publishing to breakdown the fight. Today we ponder the skills, talents, and accomplishments thus far of Anthony Joshua.
Part 1: What is Wladimir Klitschko’s legacy?
There is less to say about Anthony Joshua right now than there is to say about Wladimir Klitschko. Joshua has had 11 less fights total than Wladimir has had title fights, for example. We haven’t seen the lows from Anthony Joshua yet. Hopefully we haven’t seen the highs either. He is both a legitimate heavyweight titlist and very much still a prospect, an important part of the present and yet still the promise of the future. We are in a strange era in the fight game in which prospects become champions before they stop being prospects.
Let’s start at the beginning, or at least the beginning of when we all really started paying attention to him. The year is 2012; the location is London. Anthony Joshua wins Olympic gold in his home country. What isn’t talked about much anymore is that he shouldn’t have though. He didn’t beat Savon in the first round and he may not have really beaten Cammarelle in the final, but he wore the medal in the end. It helps to be representing the host country. It always has and it always will. The truth is that Joshua was fortunate to win gold, but he still put himself in position to do it and was very competitive with the best amateur super heavyweights the world had to offer.
As a professional his story is more recent and more known. 18-0 with 18 KOs and the IBF belt. He fought and destroyed normal trial horses like Matt Skelton, Michael Sprott, and Jason Gavern. Then he became the first person to stop Kevin Johnson, which is something since Johnson generally refused to engage in a fight at all. Shortly after that came Dillian Whyte, a fight in which Joshua avenged a 2009 amateur defeat. He was tested a bit in this fight as Whyte is a decent emerging contender himself now. Buzzed early in the fight and hit too much overall, Joshua eventually ended the exciting bout in the seventh.
Here he was still a prospect clearly in need of some seasoning after a somewhat reckless display against Whyte, but a unique opportunity emerged by the name of Charles Martin. Let us call a spade a spade here. Charles Martin is the worst heavyweight titlist in the history of the sport. Prior to his shot at a Tyson Fury vacated belt, Charles Martin had fought no top nor fringe contenders. To win the belt Martin had to basically stand there for two and a partial rounds to wait for his opponent to blow his knee out. I don’t know why he was there in the fight and he won on a fluke injury. It was very clear that Anthony Joshua could get the fight with Martin due to the money Martin could make. It was also very clear that Anthony Joshua would beat Martin. To win a heavyweight title, Anthony Joshua took a step down from fighting another prospect in Dillian Whyte. Predictably, Joshua blew out Martin in two.
For his first two title defenses, Joshua took on decent heavyweight fringe contenders that were the right level for where he is as a prospect, but not necessarily worthy title challengers. He put on calm, measured performances against both Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina. Eventually they fell. Molina was a better challenger having been coming off a win over Tomasz Adamek. If Whyte is not Joshua’s best win than Molina is, especially when you can favorably compare his KO3 with Wilder’s KO9 over the same fighter. Joshua definitely had an easier time than Wilder did with Molina if that is worth anything at all.
Wladimir Klitschko is a just a ridiculous leap from the likes of Whyte and Molina. Anthony Joshua is going from double A ball to Yankee Stadium here. I will talk more about the matchup itself in Part 3 tomorrow.
So who is Anthony Joshua right now as a fighter? He is a come forward pressure fighter, mostly. Joshua does very well to come in behind the jab while mixing up his signals by fainting quite regularly. He keeps his weight heavy on his front leg and is accordingly always ready to throw with power. Anthony Joshua is also a freak athlete in many ways. Beyond his obvious physique, his hands are extremely quick and fluid for a man of his size. He has tremendous coordination in mixing up his shots in terms of placement, speed, and power. I don’t believe he has the one shot and good night ability of Deontay Wilder, no one really does, but I do think he is the better KO artist overall due to his fluidity. Wilder gets wide and starts winging on the attack while Joshua stays crisp and clean.
My concern for Joshua, however, is that is defense is basically his offense. With all his weight on his front leg, he does find great power, but he also isn’t all that mobile. He doesn’t move his head much either. So far against the level of competition that he has fought, this has been enough. His opponents have been too preoccupied with worrying about what is coming at them to really consider mounting an offense of their own. The only fighter to really commit to trying to hit Joshua was Dillian Whyte and Whyte was able to do so regularly. Do I think this will matter against Wladimir Klitschko? Come back tomorrow for part three in which I finally discuss the matchup itself.
