Anthony Joshua’s professional debut was nothing short of a demolition, but less than a month after making his first true test, the Olympic gold medallist gets back in the ring with Paul Butlin on Saturday.
Inside the first round of his bout against previously unbeaten Emanuele Leo, Joshua had delivered a message to the heavyweight community: There’s a new face to watch out for in the sport.
However, Butlin may prove a sterner test than the two minutes and 47 seconds it took to TKO Italian Leo, with Sky Sports reporting Joshua as saying that he’s ready to go a full six rounds in his coming fight.
The 24-year-old has had big plans laid ahead of him for some time now, and it’s time to start living up to them in what should be a sterner examination of his mettle.
Date: Saturday, October 26
Time: Undercard starts at 8 p.m. local time (BST)
Venue: Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Viewing Info: Sky Sports 1 (HD)
Stream: Sky Go App (Subscription Required)
That being said, 37-year-old Butlin is still little more than a stepping-stone for Joshua. The veteran has lost 13 of his last 15 fights, falling victim to a finish on six of those occasions.
This Saturday is likely to tell a similar story. One merely had to look at what kind of shape Joshua was in at the weigh-in to guess what kind of a punch he packed in his gloves, well demonstrated in the fight itself.
There, the up-and-comer showed that he has the ability to not only open up his opponent, before he faded away as some tend to, but ultimately overwhelm on his opponent and go in for the kill.
That being said, there might be more to the seasoned Butlin than first suggested. Speaking ahead of his Sheffield meeting with Joshua, per the Daily Mail’s Martin Domin, the Oakham native says:
I will bring non-stop aggression. It is common sense, I can’t keep it long. I am going to have to put it on him from round one. If I don’t, he will stop me. The reach on him, the speed of him, the power of him, if I don’t put it on him then I will get stopped.
It doesn’t matter how muscly you are, you can’t change your jaw – you could have the best body in the world but it doesn’t make you the best boxer, it doesn’t mean you have a good jaw. On Saturday that is what I am going to do – test his jaw.
In a way, Butlin raises a good point. Regardless of future prospects and physical conditioning, Joshua’s jaw is one of the main items at risk on Saturday night.
From the veteran’s comments, one shouldn’t expect to see a particularly long bout in the undercard meeting, and it’s unlikely Joshua will actually get to see his first six-round encounter.
In fact, it’s a firm possibility the Londoner might end his first two fights having seen less than two rounds.
In any case, spectators can look forward to warming up to the matchup between Kell Brook and Vyacheslav Senchenko with a good chance of a knockout between this pair.
Having seen little more than two minutes of Joshua in his professional career, there isn’t much to form an opinion of heading into Saturday’s fight, but the future looks bright from what evidence there is.
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