Next for Joshua?

Who do you guys think AJ should go in with for his first defence in June?

I think Stiverne would be a decent match - should be durable enough to take some of AJ's shots so it isn't an early night, definitely winnable for AJ and Stiverne is definitely capable of upsetting the apple cart.

http://www.ibfusbaregistration.com/ibfusba_02APR2014/index.php/ratings/ibf-ratings?view=rankings

3 Erkan Teper - Germany
4 Carlos Takam France
5 Joseph Parker New Zealand
6 Kubrat Pulev Bulgaria
7 Vyacheslav Glazkov Ukraine
8 Derek Chisora Zimbabwe
9 Andy Ruiz Mexico
10 Charles Martin United States
11 Johan Duhaupas France
12 David Haye United Kingdom
13 Dominic Breazeale United States
14 Eric Molina United States
15 Jarrell Miller United States

Chisora is number 8 (hailing from Zimbabwe apparently). He should really be facing anyone from 6 up but it wouldnt surprise me if he takes easy money against Chis.

Definitely Stiverne.

Dangerous (hits like a mule), good chin so will give AJ rounds, is relatively high profile as a recent world champ, opportunity to '1-up' Wilder by putting in a better performance or even stopping him.

Parker would be interesting too, but only if homeboy would move out his back yard for once. As he's not really a draw and is probably happier slapping stiffs in NZ, I doubt that fight will ever happen though.

How about Lucas Brown in a unification of sorts?

Unless Big Daddy proves his accusations, he's on the scrap heap now sadly.

Teper must be out of the equation after the PED scandal

TopHat24/7 wrote:Unless Big Daddy proves his accusations, he's on the scrap heap now sadly.

Didn't see it mentioned on here, but he took an independent polygraph test which showed he was telling the truth. Certainly something dodgy going on.

I agree Paul. I think it's a massive stitch up. Think Fury foresaw it too and the fact Browne wouldn't get a B sample tested shows, if anything, that's he's convinced he entered the country clean and that he was spiked such that he was definitely 'unclean' when tested post fight.

Agree with BF88 too, Teper out also.

Glaz presumaly still injured?

There's no way they're going to put him in with someone dangerous! It's all about carefully cultivating his ranking/reputation without taking risks. We can expect someone like Chisora, Malik Scott, etc. Stiverne or Pulev won't happen yet. Maybe Haye two or three fights down the line?

Haye, if only to knock him back in to retirement. Big name though, not a particularly dangerous fight either for him. Has the punchers chance, but would fancy AJ to knock him out.

Am I missing something? Stiverne is the toughest name mentioned so far but he isn't ranked in the top 15 of the IBF so doesn't that rule him out?

Yeh it does. I guess it means some of us are thinking who we'd most like to see him fight next, rather than his next best IBF defence.

Matchroom mentioned one of Stiverne, Molina and Breazele as being the likely picks.

Well I really hope its Stiverne out of those three.

Looking at the IBF rankings, it looks like the highest ranked person available is Andy Ruiz who has a fight scheduled against TBA in May.

I think Molina is the most likely to fit the profile they are looking for. That would be my guess. Hes pretty ordinary but coming off an decent upset win and has some experience (been in with Wilder and Arreola in KO losses). Also holds an IBF ranking. Shouldnt pose much of a threat but will come and have a go.

I can see a rematch with Whyte again later in the year, if Whyte can put together a couple of wins after his surgery.

catchweight wrote:I think Molina is the most likely to fit the profile they are looking for. That would be my guess. Hes pretty ordinary but coming off an decent upset win and has some experience (been in with Wilder and Arreola in KO losses). Also holds an IBF ranking. Shouldnt pose much of a threat but will come and have a go.

I can see a rematch with Whyte again later in the year, if Whyte can put together a couple of wins after his surgery.

It's sad that this qualifies you for a shot at the title these days.

bellchees wrote:

catchweight wrote:I think Molina is the most likely to fit the profile they are looking for. That would be my guess. Hes pretty ordinary but coming off an decent upset win and has some experience (been in with Wilder and Arreola in KO losses). Also holds an IBF ranking. Shouldnt pose much of a threat but will come and have a go.

I can see a rematch with Whyte again later in the year, if Whyte can put together a couple of wins after his surgery.

It's sad that this qualifies you for a shot at the title these days.

I'm sure Douglas got a shot at Tyson by fulfilling this exact criteria

Tyson had already beaten several top contenders by this point though. Joshua is being exploited from the set off

Exploited?! l*l

There are very few for him to fight anyway. Povetkin, wilder, klitschko and fury are already tied up. There are a few here and there, like stiverne but he isn't up for his first mandatory anyway so we wait till the second. I agree that it's likely but let them do it before we criticise them.

Aside from Fury, Wilder, Wlad and Povetkin they're all varying levels of poor anyway, somebody like Parker will have his name thrown about as will Ortiz but both are pretty crap.

Joshua vs Martin and probably whatever comes next is clear exploitation of labelling decentish fights as world title fights and massively overselling Joshuas career so far to the gullable sports fans. They are all at it I know. I dont have a particular issue with it. But to compare it to Tysons first reign is miles of the mark

Lance wrote:Tyson had already beaten several top contenders by this point though. Joshua is being exploited from the set off

Tyson had completely wiped out the division save for Holyfield (who was next in the queue).

What about Johan Duhaupas? Recently travelled to Finland to take Helenius' 0. Also a top 15 ranked IBF contender. I appreciate pickings will be scarce for the next month or two but surely AJ could do worse for a first defence.

Dominic Breazeale...

Joshua vs Breazeale

Under card so far

Murray vs Groves

So basically Eddie chose the easiest of the three names he hinted at and shoved the fight on sky sports box office. Stiverne was always out because for some reason he doesn't have a top 15 ranking with the IBF any more. Molina took wilder 9 rounds and would have been a good yard stick to measure AJ against. But breazeale? Talk about milking the belt and taking the public for a ride. Hopefully the undercard will make up for a terrible main event because there is no way this fool is going to take AJ more than 3 rounds.

Completely agree. Should be an easy nights work and some easy money for Hearn via Box office. Hasn't beat anyone of note, lost in the 1st round at the olympics (but have used the fact he was an Olympian to sell the fight). Only seen 2 of his fights, Joshua will crush him. Too fast.

However, I would like to see Murray vs Groves. Cross roads fight for both men. Murray needs to win this fight to get himself within a decent shot of a title....Groves MUST win if he is to do the same. Both have failed 3 times I believe at world level?? Jack and Froch for groves along with Abraham GGG and Martinez?? Thought he won the last one and took Abraham damn close.

If there are a couple more decent fights on the undercard I may purchase. Not one sided affairs with the usual likes of McDonnell boring me to sleep early on, or Selby dancing around with a fringe contender when he is clearly levels above.

Ronikara wrote:So basically Eddie chose the easiest of the three names he hinted at and shoved the fight on sky sports box office.

"Someone's 0 must go" hype machine

It looks like they went with the guy who demanded the least money

They threw the money at Martin, so no surprise this time. Easy defence, keeps the 0 & the AJ show rolling on & they all cash in. Doubt we will see AJ against anyone remotely at the top of the box ing HW division until 2017. You can't seriously go from a one or two round defence against Breazeale, to then suddenly stepping up to Fury or Wilder level fights a few months later. Hearn would never risk that.

20,000 people willing to fill the O2 and over 10 times that number willing to buy the PPV's. Why would you risk derailing that gravy train. Eddie is laughing all the way to the bank.

No wonder they didn't try to rival Fury Vs Wlad

Seen Breazeale once and was not impressed at all

This won't go long

Groves vs Murray however is a very very good fight

They should do the decent thing and make groves v Murray top of the bill...

So this is the guy who lost every round of his last fight, but won because his opponent nearly bit his own tongue off. The same opponent who previously lost to Steve Cunningham.

The bookies will be taking odds on number of seconds not number of rounds.

I hope those that buy, enjoy.

First round was 10-3 this morning, which seems a steal.

Like the Groves vs Murray fight but the AJ fight could be another farce.

milkyboy wrote:So this is the guy who lost every round of his last fight, but won because his opponent nearly bit his own tongue off. The same opponent who previously lost to Steve Cunningham.

The bookies will be taking odds on number of seconds not number of rounds.

I hope those that buy, enjoy.

If I do get it it'd be for the Murray v Groves fight. Hoping they had a couple more decent fights to the undercard as can't really be arsed watching a couple of euro-level fighters go at it before AJ smashes this guy to bit inside 3 rounds.

AJ is 1/10 to win by knockout. I can't imagine him being much above 11/8 for either rounds 1/2/3. He must, must fight Haye next after this one....

Only positive of this fight is that at least he's staying active... Straws. Clutching.

Never seen Breazale in action, but from what I was reading he seemed to be considered the least accomplished of the options considered for Joshua. Something of a novice who hadnt really looked like developing into anything beyond an ordinary heavyweight. His last fight was supposed to be a bit of a fluke where he was getting his ass handed to him by a 40 something year old until a freak injury caused the guy to withdraw.

I expect Hearn to try and get 3 easy paydays in before going after Haye. Hopefully the winner of Fury Klitschko takes on the winner of Wilder Povetkin before then. AJ can be the Lucien Bute of the division

I think AJ will have one more easyish fight after this then fight Joseph Parker or Carlos Tekam, who meet soon to decide who the mandatory is

wheelchair1991 wrote:I think AJ will have one more easyish fight after this then fight Joseph Parker or Carlos Tekam, who meet soon to decide who the mandatory is

So that's two easy fights then. Neither Parker or Takam look up to anything

Makes Haye's opponent look positively top drawer

Have to admit that I had to look Breazeale up. Hmmm don't think that there's any danger of Joshua losing that one.

I seen Brezeale on the Garcia/Guerrero undercard on Boxnation back a few weeks ago and he looked absolutely woeful. He was bullied for periods against a 40 year old plus guy, he looked like a complete raw novice. Saying that there isn't a great deal of decent opposition to choose from.

Cheers, Rodders

Rodney wrote:

Saying that there isn't a great deal of decent opposition to choose from.

There has to be 20+ heavyweights better than Breazale, and that's actually being generous. Probably 40+ in reality.

I'm a big Joshua fan, but this is a very poor choice. I understand the notion of a "soft" first defence, but this really is an un-defendable choice of opponent.

Price thrown his name in to the mix.

At least if he lands it would be a serious chin check, Price probably still has some of the best power in the division.

AJ in 2.

Price is going to have to have a major rebranding for people to take him seriously. He's also going to need to have a tear up that he comes through unscathed to rid us of the notion that he can't take a punch.

Neither will happen so the closest he's getting to a World title shot is fighting Hughie Fury with Tyson acting a ring card girl again

Would like to see that Hughie Fury fight actually.......

If price couldnt punch, he would probably be next in line for joshua. The unfortunate thing is hes still probably considered too dangerous. I would wager hes better than the breazale guy. Who by the sounds of what i have read got his title shot by robbing one journeyman and fluking a win over a 42y old in his last couple of fights