Share

Haye eyes Joshua fight

Anthony Joshua 16-0-0 at the O2 Arena, London England has made short work of Charles Martin now 23-1-1 knocking him out in the second round of their IBF Heavyweight championship bout.

Advertisement

In the second round of his 16th professional fight Saturday, Joshua overpowered Charles Martin after 92 seconds to seize the American’s IBF heavyweight title in front of 20,000 home fans.

Fights with David Haye and Tyson Fury will become more probable in the next 12-18 months and generate significant mainstream interest and therefore money, and Joshua said: “George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier fought; Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis fought…” The reason why I don’t want to make a big deal of it is when you win, I think you’ve got to keep it balanced and if you lose you’ve got to keep it balanced.

The suspicion remains that without further time to develop he will struggle when matched with one of the division’s rangier, smarter or more mobile fighters, and as the new champion time is one of the few things which he will be short of.

The 27-year-old Fury will instead take on Klitschko in a rematch in Manchester on 9 July, the same night as Joshua’s first defence of his belt in London.

Fury, who had earlier tweeted that he placed a £1,000 bet on Martin to knock out Joshua, was quick to respond. I know Tyson Fury wants a fight, too, and I’d take that and then there is Deontay Wilder. I told you I was going to come out and punish him, I told you I would show him levels and this is the reward of it.

“Potentially (fight Haye), I don’t see why not?” “I’m only one-quarter of the way there”, said Joshua immediately following his triumph.

Title-holder Martin came into the fight in confident mood, having claimed the vacant IBF belt in January by defeating Vyacheslav Glazkov via a third-round TKO.

Former world heavyweight champion David Haye believes he will face Joshua before the Watford-born boxer is granted a shot at Fury.

Martin looked at Van Imschoot and finally jumped to his feet at the end of the 10-count, but the referee waved the fight off as Martin argued he could continue. I spoke to someone on the phone the other day and said: ‘Is it bad that I’m thinking about my post-fight speech already?’

Advertisement

Joshua said he was never awed by the moment and that he simply remained focused on what he had to do rather than get caught up in the enormous hype.

Charles Martin is knocked down in the second round by Anthony Joshua