Anthony Joshua Right to Take a Gamble Against IBF Champion Charles Martin
So now we know for certain. Sunday's announcement by Matchroom Boxing confirmed the rumours: Anthony Joshua will challenge IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin on April 9 in London.
While the announcement hardly came as a shock, there was still an element of surprise that a deal had actually been completed.
Negotiations had become public knowledge several days prior to the official announcement. Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, paved the way for it to happen when saying on Feb. 9, per Matt Christie of Boxing News: "If Charles Martin wants the fight on April 9, he can have it."
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In boxing terms, that's a giant come-and-get-me plea.
On Valentine's Day—normally one for lovers, not fighters—a press release from Matchroom Boxing at 6 p.m. GMT (1 p.m. ET) revealed the details of the bout. Hearn said in the statement:
"Life is all about taking opportunities and when the chance to become Heavyweight [champion] of the world presented itself, there was no holding Anthony back.
He wants to give the fans something to get excited about and he wants to become a great and even though the decision among the team took a week or so, I believe his mind was already made up from the moment I asked him. It's a complete honour to promote an event of this magnitude. I believe it's one that will go down in the history of the sport.
"
Rewind back to the middle of December, however, and Hearn was looking to go in a different direction with one of Britain's brightest boxing prospects.
In his column for the Daily Mail, the promoter admitted he and the rest of Joshua's team were "keeping our eye" on what was happening with the IBF belt (which at that time was still vacant). The main focus, though, was on the European crown.
"AJ wants to go the route of collecting all the titles before and already has British and Commonwealth to his name," Hearn wrote.
So it seemed the Joshua bandwagon—left with standing room only these days—had the sat nav still set on reaching the destination of a world-title shot, but not before stopping off along the way.
It made sense, too. Here was a fighter only 15 fights into a pro career that promised so much.
The journey was hardly taking the scenic route considering the 2012 Olympic gold medallist was just one more win away from being pitched in at world level anyway.
Some great names have conquered Europe previously. Max Schmeling of Germany and Sweden's Ingemar Johansson held the belt in the 1930s and '50s, respectively, while English crowd favourites Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno were also champions during their careers.
More recently, Lennox Lewis and the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, used the European crown as a springboard to bigger and better things. Joshua attempting to follow in their footsteps makes perfect sense.
Yet something convinced Hearn and, most importantly of all, Joshua, to ditch the well-worn road to the top and just plough across the fields, as the crow flies, straight for a major belt.
The press release contained one important word to explain the reason behind the decision—opportunities.
Joshua does not have to do an extensive search to find potential foes even if he continues to knock them out (all 15 of his victories have come by stoppage). He sells tickets, and that means even his opponents get a slice of the pie. It's the least they have deserved to date for being on the wrong end of his heavy hands.
His last outing, which came against rival Dillian Whyte at the O2 Arena in the English capital, sold out in six hours, according to Sky Sports.
Sky Box Office also aired it as a pay-per-view broadcast. Considering it was a domestic clash between two big men with only 30 fights between them, the numbers Dan Rafael of ESPN.com tweeted about after the event were particularly impressive:
Admittedly, Joshua vs. Whyte was a grudge match.
The bad blood—stemming back to when the pair met in the amateurs—was not merely a publicity stunt. They managed to make sure the arena would be packed on Dec. 12, 2015, despite the paying customers not even knowing who would be on the undercard when tickets became available.
Aided by his exploits at the Olympics on home soil, Joshua has developed a huge following in a hurry.
Hearn deserves credit, too, as he toured Britain with one of his prized assets in the early days to aid his exposure.
Instead of kissing babies like politicians tend to do on rare trips away from the sanctuary of the House of Commons in London, Joshua just knocked out overmatched heavyweights instead.
Take a look at the 26-year-old's record, and you will see he has recorded knockouts in Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield in England, as well as in Scotland and Wales.
Joshua's popularity has not gone unnoticed by Martin and his team.
Per Phil D. Jay of World Boxing News, the American's manager, Mike Borao, sees the first defence for the new champion as a chance to raise his profile overseas.
"Charles Martin is already world champion, but traveling to the UK gives him the opportunity to tap into a massive UK fanbase," Borao said.
But it is also all about opportunities for Martin.
He has suddenly found himself in a position of power in a popular division (despite the years in the doldrums).
While Joshua is better off finding out sooner rather than later if he is as good as everyone believes, Martin is better off making the most of his status while he has it.
The unbeaten 29-year-old southpaw (23-0-1, 21 KOs) picked up the available belt—stripped away from Tyson Fury before he'd barely finished singing Aerosmith's classic "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" to his wife in Dusseldorf, Germany, after beating Wladimir Klitschko—with a win over Vyacheslav Glazkov.
The result was announced as a TKO triumph, yet the truth is the stoppage in Round 3 was down to an accident rather than the impact of any one punch.
Having damaged his knee when slipping on the canvas, Glazkov was unable to continue. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook noted in his report that the contest "didn't really get going at all."
It didn't really matter to Martin—Prince Charles was crowned on Jan. 16 in Brooklyn, New York.
But what little action took place at the Barclays Center told us little about the new champion's abilities. So like his next opponent, he is taking a calculated gamble by stepping into the unknown, as pointed out by Showtime boxing analyst Al Bernstein on Twitter:
Martin is striking while the iron is hot. Rather than take a straightforward defence on home turf for next to nothing, he has agreed to travel to the challenger's backyard for a better payday. Considering boxing is a tough way to make a living, there is nothing wrong with maximising your earning potential.
The sport is also about taking opportunities (there is that word again), even if the timing is not quite right or the odds are not in your favour. As Boxing News' George Gigney pointed out, Martin is the underdog despite holding the title:
The gamble seems bigger for Martin, who has come from relative obscurity to hold a piece of the heavyweight championship of the world.
A late developer who moved into the paid ranks almost a year before Joshua's debut happened in October 2013, he has not had anything close to the same level of hype as the Englishman. You would reckon he hasn't earned anywhere close to the same amount of money, either.
They do have one thing in common, though. Both knocked out Brazilian heavyweight Raphael Zumbano Love in the first half of 2015.
Martin needed 10 rounds to get the job done; Joshua took less than six minutes to achieve the same result.
Hearn makes it a "50-50 fight," according to Isaac Robinson of Sky Sports. Others in the industry do not share his optimism that it will be so close:
David Haye's tweet has ulterior motives. He would welcome a new champion being crowned on April 9.
The Hayemaker is waiting in the wings for an opportunity. The two-weight world champion is scheduled to be in action again on May 21. Could that bout—against an as-yet-unnamed opponent—be a potential tune-up for a bout against his compatriot?
With Amir Khan and Kell Brook looking unlikely to collide in the near future now that the former is fighting Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on May 7, British boxing fans would welcome a summer blockbuster of heavyweight proportions instead.
Fury—who holds the WBA and WBO titles—could also be interested in trying to reclaim a belt he briefly held, while American Deontay Wilder is the current WBC champion who is waiting for unification bouts, according to Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com.
Once you're seated at the top table, the options increase. The prices go up, too.
Even a defeat for either man doesn't remove him from the picture entirely.
Joshua's lack of experience can easily be used as a reason for him falling short should he suffer a first loss.
As for Martin, an unsuccessful defence doesn't mean he's immediately kicked off the heavyweight merry-go-round. There's the chance for another ride or two. Or, more realistically, in a division where age is just a number, you can stay on for as long as someone is still willing to pay you to go around again.
You only need to see Shannon Briggs (now aged 44) and Fres Oquendo (a 42-year-old who was knocked out by John Ruiz over a decade ago) still high up in the world rankings, per Fight News, to prove how a heavyweight can stick around longer than Sticky the stick insect when he got stuck on a sticky bun (h/t Black Adder).
The similarity between long car journeys and boxing careers is that you never really know what is around the corner. Even if you have planned your path to perfection, things can suddenly change.
Martin feels the bout is the right move for his career (and his bank balance), while Joshua feels confident enough in his abilities to claim a world title ahead of schedule.
When their paths collide, only one will remain on track. However, both should be praised in advance for taking up the challenge that lies ahead.
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