George Groves predicts a flawless AJ win
Speaking to Genting Casinos, former world champion, George Groves, predicts a flawless AJ win, but warns him he must be punch perfect against Robert Helenius.
‘The Nordic Nightmare’ has stepped in with less than a week's notice to replace Dillian Whyte as AJ's opponent at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday, August 12, live on DAZN.
The 39-year-old Finn is a two-time European heavyweight champion and current holder of the WBA Gold title. Although he is expected to give AJ a fight, no one is giving him any chance of winning. But what does Saint George think of that…
Joshua shouldn’t have any problem against Helenius, but he shouldn’t compare himself to Wilder’s round 1 knockout
“I can’t see any real problems for Joshua. Robert Helenius won over the weekend so the advantage is that he will be fit. But for Joshua, he may suffer a massive come down from the Dillian Whyte fall out and might struggle to get back up for it.
“However, I do predict a good Joshua performance, but there’s pressure on him. The last big name Helenius was in with was Deontay Wilder and Wilder blitzed Helenius in under a round, so Joshua might be thinking he’s got to match Wilder’s performance and people will be expecting him to do the same. But he can’t adopt the mentality of ‘I need to do better than Wilder’ because I don’t think you can do better than knocking someone out in round one.
“Joshua has to show us a punch perfect performance. This isn’t a fight to go past the middle rounds. I don’t want to see him slugging through 12 rounds and saying ‘I got the rounds in and I’m still learning’, no boxer should be doing that, especially if you are at Anthony Joshua’s level. I predict a solid Anthony Joshua win before the fight gets to the middle rounds. Hopefully that sets him up for a super fight with Wilder.”
Anthony Joshua’s got a chip on his shoulder… but I back his decision to change trainers
“From what I've seen of Joshua, he’s got a chip on his shoulder. Fighters accumulate this and I don't know what he's fighting for now because he will say he's fighting for money but I think he's earned enough money. And I don't know if he's fighting for fame and accolades. Is he fighting just because that's what he is, that's what he knows, that's what he does? Because in most interviews – and I know people ask him about it – but it's always like a moan about what people are saying about him, that's the chip on the shoulder.
“Froch sort of attacked him because he said some stuff about Rob McCracken. But I was a fighter who changed trainers and I see the value in changing trainers. And it doesn't always have to be after a loss because different trainers show you different things, different environments, different parts of the world, and that reads you differently. Joshua is probably at this stage of his career where he's thinking, I thought I knew everything about boxing. Turns out I hadn't scratched the surface. And the vast majority of people around him are not old boxing heads.”
Robert Helenius saved AJ card – It is still a solid card with up and coming prospects and contenders
“Robert Helenius is the best that Matchroom could do at short notice. Joshua isn’t the huge commodity that he was five years ago, so you can’t just put him with anyone and put it on PPV. When they quickly realised that it would be hard to sell on PPV they had to think about a subscription based card which was free to view without the possibility of a PPV.
“It is a good solid card now. AJ is back fighting again, Filip Hrgovic is in a title contender match at Heavyweight and we get to see Derek Chisora in a dust up. We also get to see prospects such as Campbell Hatton and Brandon Scott. It is the best out of a bad situation to be honest.”
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