By Edward Chaykovsky
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport says Olympic gold medal winner Anthony Joshua must be very disciplined when he challenges IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin on April 9th at the O2 Arena in London.
Joshua (15-0, 15KO) vs. Martin (23-0-1, 21KO) will headline a Sky Sports Box Office event.
Martin captured the vacant world title last month with a third round stoppage of Czar Glazkov at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The belt became vacant after newly crowned champion Tyson Fury was unable to move forward with a mandatory defense against Glazkov. Fury is contractually bound to have a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko.
Joshua's biggest win took place last December when he stopped his heated rival Dillian Whyte in the seventh round. He was looking to take Whyte's head off in every round and gave his opponent some much needed openings. Whyte was able to stun Joshua in the early on and landed some very good punches in the contest.
Hearn wants Joshua to avoid being emotionally charged against an opponent who does have decent punching power with an awkward style.
"Anthony has got to show a lot more calmness than he did in the fight with Dillian Whyte. He boxed purely on emotion and made a whole load of mistakes, but he showed he has got a good chin, he showed that he is fit and showed his power late in the fight," Hearn told Sky Sports News HQ.
"It was a massive learning curve, I think you are going to see a much improved Anthony Joshua against Charles Martin, but again we don't know how good Charles Martin actually is. We know he is good, but how good is he? He is undefeated, but he has been virtually untested. In the division anything can happen, but I think you are going to see a much more mature performance from Anthony Joshua. He has to box to a game plan, Martin is a 6ft 5in awkward southpaw with a big backhand.
"Anthony must be disciplined, he must not let the occasion or the crowd get the better of him. Anthony has been a revelation for British boxing since he turned professional, but especially in the last six months and to have the chance to become world heavyweight champion in only his 16th fight is an incredible achievement. We all believe he can do it."
