Matchroom Boxing: O2 Arena; London, England
It was far from fancy, wild, and fast. But in his second fight with trainer Derrick James, Anthony Joshua makes small improvements. Now, whether or not he gets Deontay Wilder next is still up for a debate. Robert Helenius came out aggressive versus “The Bronze Bomber” and got crumbled by him on his back foot in the opening round.
Helenius who saved the card against Anthony Joshua just five-days out started with the same gameplan. In the hopes that Joshua and James still haven’t completely gelled yet. And for a hot second, it looked that way.
There’s two ways to look at how Joshua fought before picking up the 1:27 of the seventh round thundering knockout. Some will say he was too passive, others will say he was just taking his time, not looking to make a foolish mistake due to wild chances.
The latter one is seeing things in the big picture. The Saudi’s are clamoring and ready to sign the Joshua versus Wilder fight for January according to Eddie Hearn. And between James and Malik Scott it will be interesting to see who has gotten more out of their fighter.
Anthony Joshua Makes Small Gains… Is It Close To Enough Though
Scott has been harnessing Wilder’s aggression and has him fighting great off his back foot now. So should Johua inch in too close, the most feared puncher in the sport WILL crack and test his chin like never before. It also has looked like Wilder’s hand speed has gotten faster.
While Joshua is looking to become more defensively sound, his chin is still an open target. He wasn’t pushing the pace against Helenius till the end of the fifth-round. Give the confidence Helenius was getting to Wilder, and Joshua might go to sleep quite early. Not that he didn’t find success with a decent jab early, because he was. It’s just a fight with WIlder will never see rounds five-to-seven.
Joshua said post-fight:
“Man, people just need to leave me alone. It’s my time in the ring now”.
He also gave praise to “The Nordic Nightmare” for saving the event after Dillian Whyte popped once again for banned substances.
However, back to a Wilder fight, it would behoove the 33-year old Englishman to take one more fight before dealing with Wilder. The winner of the rematch between Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang would fit the bill perfectly. Wilder is too dangerous to deal with if there’s even a slight gap in the relationship between James and Joshua. Although a move like that would be high risk as well for Joshua.
He’s always had decent footwork although he no longer is on his toes. An above average jab is fine, but three-four-fight shot combos would go a long way in him regaining the heavyweight strap for a third time. Something that will take more time working with James.
For sports news click on: Belly Up Sports. For all things CYCLONE, head to: Facebook.
