Where are you on the Anthony Joshua potential debate?

I must admit. Up until and after his exciting 7th round knockout defeat of bitter rival Dillian Whyte. I didn’t quite realise just how varied the opinion on Anthony Joshua and his potential was.

Obviously, on the media’s side, he has been, and still is touted as the next/future dominant World Heavyweight Champion. But the more people I speak to, the more I tend to find a lot of opinions that don’t quite mirror the media’s views.

Those views have expressed concerns that Joshua easily got rocked by an average Dillian Whyte in the second round. Seemed to be blowing throughout the fight, looked slow and labored, is way too bulky, not agile enough and needs to slim down for 12 round fights.

These are all fair points and accurate observations and statements. But contrary to how the media and Matchroom have raved about Joshua. You have to realise he is still a novice of only 15 fights and this was the first time Joshuah had been taken past the third round.

Although I always thought he was going to beat Whyte, I believe people are not giving Whyte and indeed the intense situation the credit it deserves.

Fair enough, Joshua has won an Olympic goal medal. But how many novice fighters have had to deal with such a pressurised grudge match, against a fighter that had previously beaten him, who was also undefeated, a knockout artist and was talking mad trash!?

This unique situation has to be really be taken into consideration. Even though he was expected to win. It was a test and a learning experience that he had to deal with and come through. I feel he came through it with minimal fuss, apart from that second round wobble. But he was in control of the fight for the most part.

To me, it’s funny that since his dramatic 7th round knockout of Dillian Wh yte. There seems to be two extremes regarding statements of Joshua’s potential in boxing,

One is: “he’s definitely on his way to becoming a World Heavyweight champion, within the next 18 months.”

The other is: “he’s the modern-day Frank Bruno” (although Bruno won a world title) just big, looks good but will get exposed against any real great fighter.

Although to me, at this time, both statements could potentially, be true. That one word is the key “potentially” ….. Potential is so relative and it’s beating the likes of Dillian Whyte, in such a pressurised situation, and in the end, such spectacular fashion. Is what makes that World Heavyweight champion potential closer to being fulfilled.

Don’t get me wrong, there no doubt Joshua has a lot of work to do. Against Whyte, yes, he looked a bit labored, I wasn’t that impressed with his head movement and it did look as though he was carrying too much muscle for a long, grueling fight.

But he also looked strong, he came through adversity well, he seemed to use his brain and demonstrated a lot of variety in his punches, and he finished the fight spectacularly.

Just to put it into perspective. In his 15th fight. Mike Tyson had a first round knockout of 22-year-old Mike Young.

That was Young’s 16th fight and he already had 5 losses. Young went on to have a 14 win and 37 loss record.

In Lennox Lewis’ 15th fight, he knocked out Gary Mason in the 7th round. Mason was unbeaten and a veteran of 35 fights. But had an injury scare with a detached retina two fights earlier. This was aggravated in the fight with Lewis and Mason only had two more fights before he retired.

In Tyson Fury’s 15th fight he defeated Derek Chisora via a unanimous points decision. It was also a grudge match and Chisora’s 15th fight. He was also unbeaten at the time.

Wladimir Klitschko defeated Slovakian Ladislav Husarik in his 15th fight via a 3rd round knockout. That was Husarik’s 19th fight and he had only won 4 of his previous 18.

I don’t think Joshua’s record or 15th fight is much different to the fighters mentioned and they all went on to win world titles.

I do believe the general consensus that Joshua may need to slim down some of his bulk muscle to be more agile and loose.

But the criticism of him looking tired and slow is unjust, as again, he’s a novice, and that was the first time he had been past the third round.

Also, that fight had so much emotions tied to it with the build up and trying to avenge his loss to Whyte from the amateurs. I feel Joshua tried everything to knock Whyte out early and that together with the ill feeling, burnt up a lot of negative energy. He will not go through many build ups like that early in his career.

It was beneficial for Joshua that the fight didn’t end early. You can do all the training and sparing, but it’s much different when you get into the real fight setting. Almost like a footballer being fit but not match fit. You have to play games to get that match fitness.

I feel as a novice in boxing, you have to actually go through those rounds in order to learn how to pace yourself and deal with the pressure and experience of figuring out how to win these type of fights.

Even though many gave Whyte no hope before, and even criticised his potential after. Though I doubt Whyte will be any future great, I believe in the future, he will go on to prove he is no slouch and I thought it was the perfect test for Joshua’s growing career.

“The Future” is another key line, as all will be revealed in it. I believe Joshua has all the tools, and potential to work with in order to write his name in Heavyweight Boxing history.

The problem is, I am sure that’s been said about many fighters in the past. Fighters that are not now being mentioned at all in the sport of boxing.

Potentially, I feel Anthony Joshua can have it all. Though he has a lot of work to do before that potential becomes reality. If he puts in the necessary work. Heavyweight boxing history, is potentially and literally in his own hands.