Tonight should see the crowning of a new British Heavyweight Champion. Think back to the days of Gary Mason and Frank Bruno when this seemed like a far fetched dream before Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury and even Bruno himself made it feel almost commonplace.
Fury’s win over the long reigning Klitchsko set a benchmark for all the aspiring contenders and his subsequent relinquishing of the IBF belt has set this bout up.
The IBF requested that Fury fight the Vyacheslav Glazkov but when he refused opting instead for a rematch with Klitchsko, Glazkov was offered the chance to fight for the belt against unbeaten but unheralded Charles Williams of America.
After two and half round of ‘pitter cake pitter cake bakers man’ the Ukranian suffered a knee injury that forced him to retire leaving Martin as the Champion by default. Many of the top contenders such as Luis Ortiz or David Haye would have loved to have gotten the chance to face Martin but hats off to Eddie Hearn for positioning Anthony Joshua at the head of the queue.
Now you may think I am being harsh on a man that has won the world title and is undefeated in 24 fights and Martin does have some power something that 21 of his rivals will testify to but Martin does not have the look of a champ. His defence is poor, relying on his height to avoid punches, he slaps with a lot of his punches and his resume is filled with more bums of the month than a copy of the Readers Wives 1984 calender.
The same could be said of Joshua as he was tagged by Dillian Whyte in his last fight and his record is not a lot better but Joshua brings a lot of power and a top class amateur pedigree (Olympic Gold). If he can work out Martin’s southpaw stance over the initial couple of rounds I can envisage a stoppage before halfway. Take the 11/8 for a Joshua stoppage before the end of round four.
Over in America we see the rubber match between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley with the scores standing at one a piece at present. The legendary Filipino has not fought since his insipid display against Floyd Mayweather and has since had surgery on an injured shoulder. Bradley has since switched trainers and joined Teddy Atlas and performed fantastically against common for Brandon Rios last time.
This will without a doubt be a very close fight and may need to go to the judges again but the value has to lie with the younger man and Bradley could take this on points if needed.
Summary
Anthony Joshua vs Charles Martin – Joshua win Rounds 1 to 4 – 2pt Win at 11/8
Manny Pacquiao vs Tim Bradley – Bradkley Win – 1pt Win at 15/8
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