By Terence Dooley
After days of furious online speculation Anthony Joshua’s sixteenth professional opponent has been named as IBF heavyweight titlist Charles Martin.
Eddie Hearn’s announcement of a Valentine’s Day announcement had lit the torch fire on social media, which was already abuzz after Tyson Fury Tweeted news of a “big fight” last night so it was fitting that "AJ" announced the bout using his Twitter account.
British hopes of Fury-Joshua were dashed when the 29-year-old American southpaw was named as the next test for the 2012 Olympic Gold Medallist.
Martin won the title in unsatisfactory conditions courtesy of a injury-induced third-round TKO win over Vyancheslav Glazkov in January. The belt was up for grabs due to Fury’s insistence that he will honour his rematch clause and meet Klitschko for a second time rather than fufil his IBF mandatory obligation.
The two heavyweights will clash at London’s O2 venue on April 9 live on Sky Sports Box Office. Joshua moved to 15-0 (15 KOs) by scoring a seventh-round stoppage win over London rival Dillian Whyte at the same venue in December.
Martin represents a chance for the 26-year-old to gatecrash the lively world heavyweight scene, currently led by Fury, Deontay Wilder, Martin and Klitschko, should he return to the fray.
As mentioned above, there were rumours of a showdown with world heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury, but today’s announcement has put that one on ice for the time being.
“Any challenge presented I take seriously! Fighting Charles Martin for the IBF World Heavyweight title!,” stated Joshua when announcing the clash via his Twitter account.
“Fighting for the Heavyweight World title has been a dream of mine since I turned professional,” he added via a press release. “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to turn that dream in to reality.
“Not only that, having the chance to fight for it in my home town at The O2 and live on Sky Sports is unbelievably exciting. Charles Martin is a great fighter and a hungry competitor so I am going to have to produce the performance of my career to claim that belt.”
“I told my Team I wanted the best challenger possible for my first defence and Anthony Joshua's name kept coming up,” stated Martin. “I'm coming to the UK to make a statement that I am the best heavyweight in the world and no-one is taking my title.
“I'm World Champion, so that doesn't mean just sit back and make easy defences in the US, it means facing the biggest challenges out there. I respect Anthony Joshua and everything he has accomplished, but on April 9 he's getting knocked out.”
Eddie Hearn, Anthony Joshua’s promoter, said: “Life is all about taking opportunities and when the chance to become Heavyweight of the world presented itself, there was no holding Anthony back.
“He wants to give the fans something to get excited about and he wants to become a great and even though the decision among the team took a week or so, I believe his mind was already made up from the moment I asked him. It's a complete honour to promote an event of this magnitude. I believe it's one that will go down in the history of the sport."
Sky Sports executive producer of boxing Adam Smith has seen the likes of Lennox Lewis and David Haye fight on Sky, he believes Joshua can join the British world title list. He said: “This is a golden opportunity for our golden Olympian as he aims to join an illustrious list of Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, David Haye and Tyson Fury to become a British World Heavyweight Champion on Sky. But it is a major risk as Joshua steps up to tackle tall undefeated American Charles Martin.
“Could this be too soon, or will the timing be right for Anthony Joshua? We can't wait to find out on another massive night on Sky Sports Box Office back at an atmospheric and packed O2.”
Please send news and views to @Terryboxing.
