Boxing and that damned 0!

Boxing and that damned 0!

Written by Platinum Boxing Promotion’s Boxing Ghost: I frequent the boxing boards far more often than I should. If a passion more befits me then im yet to find it….ok, ok, let’s play ball and bark out the well-trodden phrase of “besides my children and my wife, [insert occupation here] is the greatest love of my life”. Slight caveat, I’m not married and I don’t have any kids.

I don’t know when this happened, I don’t know if it was preordained, perhaps Moses had this etched upon the tablets of stone, by the lord himself, when he stood aloft Mount Sinai. Maybe Aesop fabled the coming, or perchance Nostradamus predicted that sometime in the 21st century of our lord Jesus Christ we would be plagued by a swarm of ‘know-it-all” boxing ‘experts’ who would believe a fighter is only of any value as long as his 0 remains intact.

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Martin-Joshua: The Heavyweight Comedy

Martin-Joshua: The Heavyweight Comedy

Anthony Joshua (15-0) will challenge Charles Martin (23-0-1) for his IBF heavyweight title this Saturday. Tyson Fury was stripped of the title after he refused to fight the mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov due to his contractual obligation to fight Klitcshko and Charles Martin fought Glazkov for the vacant strap. Glazkov quit with a leg injury and Martin was awarded a TKO win.

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Fury and Joshua go at it on Twitter

Fury and Joshua go at it on Twitter

Imagine if Twitter had been around when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were caught up in THE grudge-match series to end all grudge-match series. Back then, in the 1970s, fighters had to make do with up close and personal verbal attacks on one another when it came to attempts at shifting tickets and scoring mental points over your opponent. Ali and Frazier met in a number of staged taunting sessions, with the two all-time greats also engaging in some over the telephone exchanges. But today, fighter A can get well and truly under the skin of fighter B without even having to move out of his armchair.

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Anthony Joshua gives his pre-fight prediction ahead of Charles Martin fight: Six Rounds

Anthony Joshua gives his pre-fight prediction ahead of Charles Martin fight: Six Rounds

Participating on an international teleconference today to further promote this Saturday night’s fight with defending IBF heavyweight champ Charles Martin, London’s Anthony Joshua predicted he will win the fight by KO inside six rounds. Joshua, 15-0(15) also said that while he is the current betting favorite, he considers himself to be the underdog and is mentally prepared and motivated as such.

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Deontay Wilder sees Charles Martin-Anthony Joshua fight as “50-50 – too close to call”

Deontay Wilder sees Charles Martin-Anthony Joshua fight as “50-50 - too close to call”

Like a good number of people, reigning and undefeated WBC heavyweight king Deontay Wilder sees this Saturday night’s IBF heavyweight title fight between defending belt-holder Charles Martin and challenger Anthony Joshua as a very close, hard to call fight. Some say the fight has come too soon in the career of the 2012 Olympic gold medallist, while others say Martin is still very much the unproven article himself.

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Anthony Joshua responds to Tyson Fury criticism: Who does Fury kid himself he is – the second coming of Sugar Ray Robinson!

Anthony Joshua responds to Tyson Fury criticism: Who does Fury kid himself he is - the second coming of Sugar Ray Robinson!

In a recent interview, unbeaten heavyweight champion Tyson Fury referred to upcoming IBF title challenger and 2012 Olympic gold medal winner Anthony Joshua as “useless” and “totally unable to defend himself.” Joshua, though he is not at all prone to engaging in anything approaching disrespectful trash-talk, hasn’t taken too long to respond. Speaking with Mail Online, the man who will challenge IBF ruler Charles Martin on Saturday night at The O2, suggests Fury concentrate on his own skills instead of criticising his.

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Anthony Joshua says the big fights against Haye, Fury and Wilder are “all fights for next year.”

Anthony Joshua says the big fights against Haye, Fury and Wilder are “all fights for next year.”

Unbeaten British heavyweight hope Anthony Joshua is a level-headed kind of guy, and he realises he has plenty to learn before he is ready for the division’s elite. The 2012 Olympic gold medallist may well rip the IBF version of the heavyweight championship from Charles Martin a week today, but Joshua – as he told Forever Sports magazine – will not feel anywhere close to satisfied. That sense of satisfaction will not come, Joshua said to the magazine, until he has become undisputed heavyweight champion.

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Britain’s 5 Best Heavyweights Ready to Stamp Authority over Post-Klitschko Era

Britain’s 5 Best Heavyweights Ready to Stamp Authority over Post-Klitschko Era

It’s been 18 years since London-born Lennox Lewis tore the lineal title, in March 1998, from Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs, to add to the WBC belt he already owned. Back then, former world title holder Frank Bruno had not fought for two years, but Norfolk’s Herbie Hide still held the WBO strap, he’d won from Tony Tucker the previous year. The mid-late 90s is possibly the most successful spell in British heavyweight history, but now, in 2016, the United Kingdom’s current crop of heavyweights are looking to change that.

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Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua to be televised by Showtime on 4/9

Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua to be televised by Showtime on 4/9

NEW YORK (March 29, 2016) – The SHOWTIME BOXING INTERNATIONAL presentation of the IBF Heavyweight World Championship between undefeated American titlist Charles Martin and fellow unbeaten British Olympic Gold Medalist Anthony Joshua will air live on SHOWTIME at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 9 from The O2 in London.

An encore presentation will air later that evening on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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Kali Meehan: Once Anthony Joshua has won the title, Joseph Parker will beat him

Kali Meehan: Once Anthony Joshua has won the title, Joseph Parker will beat him

After a 19 year professional career that has propelled him all over the globe, former heavyweight world title challenger, Australian based New Zealander, Kali Meehan 42-6 (32 KOs), knows what qualities are required to reach the pinnacle of the sport. I recently spoke to “Mean Hands” Meehan, via telephone – from his home in Wyongah, New South Wales, Australia – to discuss both his colorful career, and to hear his assessment of his previous opponent, one of boxing’s rising stars: Joseph Parker.

Hailing from Levuka town, on the Fijian island of Ovalau – an island on which rugby is virtually a way of life – Kali Meehan’s mother would surely never have envisaged that her future son would one day become a successful prize-fighter, when she ventured to New Zealand half a century ago.

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