Not that one... http://www.skysports.com/boxing/new...s-martin-confirmed-for-april-9-by-eddie-hearn Anthony Joshua vs Charles Martin confirmed for April 9 by Eddie Hearn Anthony Joshua will challenge Charles Martin for the IBF world heavyweight title at The O2 on April 9, live on Sky Sports Box Office, it has been confirmed. Martin (23-0-1-KO21) travels to England to make the first defence of the title that he won in Brooklyn in January against Vyacheslav Glazkov. It will be the unbeaten American's first fight outside the United States. Joshua (15-0-KO15) has quickly turned The O2 into his boxing fortress, with five of his 15 victories coming at the London venue, including his last outing where he added the British title to his Commonwealth strap with a seventh round stoppage of bitter rival Dillian Whyte. "Fighting for the heavyweight world title has been a dream of mine since I turned professional," said Joshua. "I feel privileged to have the opportunity to turn that dream in to reality. Not only that, having the chance to fight for it in my home town at The O2 and live on Sky Sports is unbelievably exciting. "Charles Martin is a great fighter and a hungry competitor so I am going to have to produce the performance of my career to claim that belt." Martin said: "I told my team I wanted the best challenger possible for my first defence and Anthony Joshua's name kept coming up. I'm coming to the UK to make a statement that I am the best heavyweight in the world and no one is taking my title. "I'm world champion, so that doesn't mean just sit back and make easy defences in the US, it means facing the biggest challenges out there. I respect Anthony Joshua and everything he has accomplished, but on April 9 he's getting knocked out." Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua's promoter, said: "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." I know very little about Martin, some seem to fancy him. Some seem to think he's bang average. Massive fight, fingers crossed for AJ (no, not that one).
Looks like Hearn's stuck to his method of putting his fighters in 50/50 matches, for the sake of a payday for himself. The worst boxing promoter on the planet if you ask me. Joshua still has a lot to learn, but a defeat here won't finish him. Martin isn't the problem, he's not a great fighter at all, the problem will be his next match... who's going to go after that belt if he wins the bout? Hearn will possibly want the Haye fight for another payday, Joshua may be in a place where he's being forced into fight the likes of Deontay Wilder or Wlad... I don't think he'd get out of those rings standing.
If he wins it he should be fighting Joseph Parker or someone at that level. Word title or not he still needs a few more fights at a higher level to reach the proper heavyweights. I'd fancy him to pagger Fury mind.
If he wins it he should be fighting Joseph Parker or someone at that level. Word title or not he still needs a few more fights at a higher level to reach the proper heavyweights. I'd fancy him to pagger Fury mind.
I dunno mate, Fury is a strange one. He's a ****ing unit and I reckon that gets him out of all sorts of holes. Wlad could have finished him off in that fight if he was in better shape, Tyson spend half the fight trying to pull his shorts up as they'd come undone and that was a perfect opportunity to smash **** out of him. Somebody like Haye would have taken advantage there and completely ruined him. Joshua needs fights of course, but when you've got the crown and other fighters become mandatory... that's a position Eddie Hearn is going to leave AJ in. All he can do is get a few more journeymen or chumps lined up at commonwealth or British level and use them for conditioning and target practice. Haye will be begging for that fight by the end of 2016 if AJ wins and because of Hearn I think he'll get it. Having said that, I'd ****ing love to see AJ mash Haye's face in.
Not a fan of Joshua, he can bang but I'm fully convinced he'll get his head took off the second he goes near world level . Fortunately for him Martin isn't world level despite winning the IBF. No one expecting him to win and Glazkov tore his acl so he didn't win it legitimately anyway. I've only seen Martin a couple of times so its a pick em fight, wouldn't be shocked at any result
Not a fan of Joshua ? he's the real deal for me, a future World Champion and possibly one of our greatest heavyweight champions...
GH Just another Audley Harrison, David Price for me. Look great knocking out taxi drivers but when they step up they crumble He was hurt by Whyte who essentially is an over weight unfit domestic-European level at best fighter. He's far too muscular and if someone takes him into deep water he'll struggle to lift his arms . Very Bruno like I think we'll see him tire, and be tko'd sagged into the ropes.
Didn't AJ only lose to Whyte? Who he absolutely battered last time out. AJ doesn't seem scared of anyone mate just taking his time and working his way up. Parker's problem is he's about as bankable as a sack of ****.
****ing hell mate, I'd say he's a bit better than David Price. He dealt with a massive blow from Whyte, one he'll learn from, he carried on and finished the fight to devastating effect. His chin was tested and yeah, a better fighter would have put him to sleep but the better fighter wouldn't have necessarily hit him as hard, that's not relative. I think you're right about him being a unit though, I think he'll be the type of fighter than needs to hurt his opponents during the first three rounds. After that fights could be a lottery for him, but there's nothing at all to stop him stripping back the weight if he needs to, a change of trainer could do that for him. I think the public are getting carried away with how good he is, and Hearn is obviously looking for paydays before he gets put on his arse and his stock falls, but I don't think I'd write him off as a top fighter just yet.
Good match up, like others have said it might be too early. But let's be honest, the heavyweights are ****. If he can't give the top ranked bums a fight, he may as well retire.
Manny Pacquaio - "Gay couples are worse than animals". And there's his true colours... The Mr Nice guy persona people clung to so desperately when he was trying to convince the world he was good enough to take down FMJ, he's nothing more than a fraud. Freddie Roach is his trainer, another homophobic ****ing moron. I for one am glad this piece of **** never landed anything on Floyd Mayweather, he was an embarrassment to himself in that fight and was never worthy of dethroning the best pound for pound fighter of his generation.
What happens when you base your ethics and outlook on a 2000 year old book full of mumbo jumbo. I read daily nonsense bible passeges that he posts daily, it was only a matter of time before one of the pig headed views of the bible popped up. Lost a lot of respect for Manny since the Floyd fight
When does Matchroom have 50/50 fights? Hearn and Sky really boil my urine now with making all of these big British fights up to be the biggest thing since a slice of Hovis, in reality the biggest British fight for a number of years is next weekend with Frampton and Quigg putting their world titles on the line, even Froch v Groves fights didn't have 2 world title holders going at it. Joshua I'm pretty sure will win the world title in his next fight but Hearn has had him fighting bum's so far. Look at Kell Brook, I think possibly the best British boxer at the minute but apart from Porter who has he faced? His last 2 fights were against Frankie Gavin and Jo Jo Dan, hardly blockbuster names!
Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg in Manchester. Yeah, there's always means and ways around not paying for Box Office
