THIS WON’T GO THE DISTANCE!
Joshua predicts early KO in world title bid
TWO huge men from the wrong side of the tracks — one of them an American called Prince Charles — met within sight of Buckingham Palace yesterday and talked amiably about beating each other senseless in pursuit of a world heavyweight title.
Anthony Joshua’s rise from the drug-strewn back streets of Watford to golden Olympic glory ascends to an even more exalted level on April 9 when he expects to win the IBF championship in only his 16th professional fight.
Prince Charles Martin, on his first journey outside the United States, cited his fear of returning to hard labour under the desert sun as his imperative for denying Joshua’s challenge for the belt he has only just won.
Joshua warned: ‘We will be trying to tear each other’s heads off but when it comes to an early end I will be the last man standing.’
Martin countered: ‘No, this will not go the full 12 rounds but it is the power in these hands which will have the last word.’
As he spoke Martin held out his ham-hock fists and said: ‘These are working man’s hands. Until I found boxing I was a construction labourer in the heat of Arizona. My hands were raw from battering away with hammer and nails.
‘As the sweat was pouring off me I thought, “Surely this can’t be it. This can’t be all there is to my life”.’
Just as Joshua escaped from gangland through boxing’s door of opportunity, so Martin walked into a gym in California and found his calling. As Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says: ‘AJ has not only changed his life but is transforming boxing in this country.’
As evidence he cites how the last 7,000 of the 20,000 tickets for Joshua’s London home, the O2 Arena, sold out within 90 seconds of the online box office opening.
This opportunity has come early for Joshua but he says: ‘When the chance of a world title comes you have to take it. And in this case it’s not too soon. Like the Olympics, this is my destiny.’ For Martin, this first world heavyweight title fight in London since Lennox Lewis beat Francois Botha 16 years ago, is already a life-changing event.
His purse for winning the IBF belt, when Vyacheslav Glazkov collapsed with a ruptured knee, has been mooted as no more than £100,000.
Hearn is reputed to have invested £2.5million in tempting Martin into crossing the Atlantic for his first title defence.
Even so, Martin denies he is coming only for the money: ‘This is about securing my future. I will be back in April to become a superstar. To start a long reign as world champion. I know the danger of coming here to face a powerful puncher like Joshua.
‘I don’t want to take the normal route of a new champion, taking easy fights. I’ve always been a different kind of person. In some ways I was the black sheep of the family. That’s because I like to take risks. Always the gambler.’ Hence it troubles him not that the London bookmakers have installed him as a 9/2 underdog to keep his title, with Joshua at a prohibitive 7/1 on.
‘That’s not something I can control,’ he says. ‘What I have been doing is controlling all my fights, since the day I walked into that gym and found what I was meant to do with myself.’
Team Joshua believe they got lucky when Martin won the title but do not go as far as to admit they are calculating he is the weakest of the champions.
Joshua says: ‘Fighters gain something extra when they win a world title. They grow. I believe absolutely for certain that I will beat him but I also know I must not make a mistake against another unbeaten man with a big knockout record.’
Martin, when asked if he perceived any chink in Joshua’s armour, let slip a clue that he is evolving a slightly longer strategy: ‘If he has a weakness it is stamina, with all that muscle-building.’
The American was a late starter, not turning professional until he was 22. Hearn remarks: ‘ These are not exactly a pair of novices now but it is a fight between two terrific prospects. That is some of the excitement because the winner becomes part of a reinvigorated heavyweight division.’
The scene was opened up by Tyson Fury’s shock dethroning of Wladimir Klitschko and the IBF’s decision to strip the Gypsy King of their belt and render the title vacant.
Joshua is grateful for that because it leaves him free to seek advice from a heavyweight he admires enormously, Wladimir’s brother Vitali. He says: ‘Both the Klitschkos know everything about boxing at the world championship level which I must move up to now. But since Vitali is retired I’m hoping he can give me the benefit of his experience and I will be talking to him.’
In addition to hitting the financial jackpot in his first defence, Martin may well have reasoned that catching Joshua early is less hazardous than a title unification fight against the multi-belted Fury or WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
He says: ‘In every era there are four or five very good heavyweights. To become a great champion you have to beat great opponents. Fury is a great champion. He proved it by beating Klitschko. Anthony Joshua is a great opponent for me.’
As Joshua texted back within 10 seconds of Hearn asking if was ready to challenge Charles Martin: ‘Let’s roll.’
Martin v Joshua will be televised live on Sky Sports Box Office on April 9.