Olympic champion Anthony Joshua continues his professional career at Bethnal Green on Thursday night against Croatian Hrvoje Kisicek, following two initial wins by knockout last month.
Joshua took his time turning professional after his triumph in London last year but has quickly lined up a series of fights as he begins his path toward the top of heavyweight boxing.
Fight Details
Who: Anthony Joshua vs. Hrvoje Kisicek
Where: York Hall, London
When: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, from 20:00 GMT
Television Information
Joshua's fight will be shown live on Sky Sports 1 as part of the Prizefighter: The Heavyweights show from 20:00 GMT, live from York Hall.
The fight can also be viewed via the SkyGo website or application.
Per the Metro's Matthew Nash, Joshua believes his new regime since turning professional will help him secure victory on Thursday, having trained hard over the past few weeks. Joshua said:
I've finished training and I'm ready to go. I've been training with a Polish heavyweight called Albert Sosnowski [who fought Vitali Klitschko three years ago] but the main thing for me has been getting my sleeping pattern right. Training often starts at 6am but with watching TV and social media and everything it can be midnight before you get to sleep. So it's lights out for me at 9.30 now!
Kisicek should provide Joshua with the opportunity of another fairly straightforward win, having failed to win any of his six career fights outside native Croatia thus far, per BoxRec.
For a boxer of Joshua's class, his opponent should represent little challenge. However, Kisicek has taken nine of his 11 fights the distance, winning and losing one apiece by knockout.
While that will not worry Joshua in terms of Kisicek's punching power, the Croat's ability to take a punch should at least offer him more of a test than his two fights to date—which have totalled just three rounds.
Britain, of course, has mixed experience with former Olympic champions turning professional in the heavyweight division, with Lennox Lewis going on to be undisputed champion of the world, while Audley Harrison flopped spectacularly.
The hope will be that Joshua can follow Lewis to the top of the sport, but he will need to make his way through some subpar opponents initially as he hopefully progresses to better things.
The 6'6" boxer from Watford, at just 24, is five years younger than Harrison was when he turned professional in 2001 and therefore can afford to take his time developing his skills as a professional boxer.
Olympic success and a top career in the professional sport can go together hand in hand, but it requires dedication to learning what is effectively a different discipline. After initial success at amateur level, not every boxer is able to make the transition.
Joshua has begun well, with victories over Emanuele Leo and Paul Butlin both achieved in confident style. The Englishman, though, needs Kisicek to go the distance to give him a better test in terms of managing the progress of a fight over a number of rounds.
It is important, though, that he escapes with no physical injuries given that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, has already arranged two further bouts for Joshua within the next month, per BBC Sport and Sky Sports.
The aim, as Hearn tells the BBC, is for Joshua to be looking at a British title fight in 12 months' time. Ideally, then, Kisicek will make him work before the Watford man seals victory with the knockout that the crowd in London will be so keen to see from the local hero.
Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment