By Frank Warren

Anthony Joshua’s so-predicable one-round felling of Gary Cornish to acquire the Commonwealth title told us nothing new about the young man Wladimir Klitschko reckons he is the best heavyweight prospect in 25 years.

We always knew he could punch, but we still don’t know if he can take a whack.

It is easy to dismiss the giant undefeated Scot called The Highlander as a Cornish patsy, but he was supposed to provide the still-learning Joshua with his most rigorous examination yet.

The likeable Cornish’s unbeaten sequence of 21 wins had been achieved mainly against undistinguished opponents, but the truth was that he was punching above his class.

Joshua’s own unblemished record, 13 brutally brief excursions, had been equally nourished on the traditional heavyweight diet of old bruisers for young hopefuls.

I am not knocking that. Most modern heavyweight prospects from Ali through to the Klitschkos, via Frazier, Foreman, Tyson, Lewis, Bruno and co have been weaned on opponents of modest ability in their early contests.

But AJ’s promoter is talking a lot of Josh tosh when he claims that the Olympic champion would wallop Wlad right now.

Joshua has still to meet an opponent with both ammunition and ambition, who will rough him up.  Then we’ll know what he’s really made of. And I suspect we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Maybe Dillian Whyte  is the man to rough him up when they meet for the British title, though on the evidence of his own performance in dismissing the hapless American Brian Minto he may not survive much beyond the 97 seconds Cornish lasted.

Whyte may be unbeaten himself, and has floored and defeated Josh when they both were novice amateurs (Joshua was also stopped in the European championships by the way, so he can be hurt) but he looks cumbersome and easy to hit. That’s meat and drink for Joshua.