Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua's First Defense Could Land on 6/25 at The O2

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Anthony Joshua could make the first defence of his IBF heavyweight world title on June 25 at London's O2 Arena. Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) claimed the belt with a two-round demolition of the previously unbeaten Charles Martin. Immediately afterwards, his promoter Eddie Hearn announced that they were provisionally looking for the 2012 Olympic Gold medallist to return on to the ring on July 9, with Wembley Stadium a potential venue.
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[OctoberRed]

I guess Eddie was trolling the Furies

[NapalmKnuckles]

He needs a durable guy that will take him rounds. Duhaupas, Teper or Stiverne maybe.

[Scipio2009]

June 25th, returning to the O2 Arena, with Groves-Murray (though not sure what the fight would do for world title aspirations, it's a solid British scrap) as the co-feature makes far more sense than the wind-up did.

With the slate of potential opponents all being rugged guys who come to fight (Molina stood for 9 rounds with Deontay Wilder), things are looking like it'll be another great day of fights (Thurman-Porter is on that evening stateside, with the Joshua fight acting as a matinee fight)

[Eff Pandas]

Hope its Bermane. Good to see he's at least on the table. Truth be told any of the listed Bermane, Jennings or Molina would easily be his best opponent so can't hate on the choice to bad whoever gets picked.

Jennings probably shouldn't be in the running for a title shot doe. Guy ain't won a fight in 2 years. Hardly a guy who should be getting a title shot.

[vitali1999]

Great that would be less than 2 months after destroying Martin. Even July 25th would be good. He certainly doesn't need to fight once a year like Fury.

[jasontreks]

The IBF mandates that Joshua take on Martin's mandatory, due January 2017. They also stipulate any optional defenses need to be against their top 15 fighters. Many of those already have fights against each other, leaving only Bermane Stiverne, Andy Ruiz, Dominic Breazeale, Jarrell Miller and presumably Johann Duhaupas(who just beat #12 Robert Helenius). Of course, Joshua could have a non-title defense or pick a fighter in the top 15 who's already locked into a fight(like Parker, Chisora, etc).

[deathofaclown]

Hope its Bermane. Good to see he's at least on the table. Truth be told any of the listed Bermane, Jennings or Molina would easily be his best opponent so can't hate on the choice to bad whoever gets picked.

Jennings probably shouldn't be in the running for a title shot doe. Guy ain't won a fight in 2 years. Hardly a guy who should be getting a title shot.

To be fair to Jennings, his losses were to Wlad and Ortiz, no shame in that.

Stiverne went life and death with Derric Rossy.

[skinnystev]

just as soon as this fraud won his paper title i knew he would fight a retinue off bums and i was right just look at the names being proposed for his 1st 'defense nothing but a bunch of loser he should be forced into the ring with luis ortiz he would get the beating he so richly deserves tyson fury said he will slap him like a little ***** when he gets him in the ring and i believe he will

[Eff Pandas]

To be fair to Jennings, his losses were to Wlad and Ortiz, no shame in that.

Stiverne went life and death with Derric Rossy.

No shame in it, but cmon you gotta win vs someone to get a title shot after some L's don't you?

And yea. I just think Bermane's the most interesting opponent of the guys mentioned. He's got 2 of 3 marks against him vs journeyman caliber guys too, but I tend to think he's a guy who fights to the level of his competition so I suspect he shows up vs Joshua or at least like he did with Wilder give him a live body in front of him who's pushing him. I don't think Joshua has had that vs a legit threat yet. Bermane can hurt him.