Froch expects Klitschko to be at his best against Joshua

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: It’s understood by fans that 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) is just a shell of his former self going into his April 29 showdown against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Carl Froch, now a pundit for Sky Sports, believes that we’re going to be seeing the very best of Klitschko instead of the one that couldn’t throw punches in his last 2 fights against Tyson Fury and Bryant Jennings.

Froch says Wladimir is going to put on the line because he believes it’s perhaps the final fight for him. Froch thinks that Wladimir is going to fight hard knowing that this could be the end of his career. Wladimir’s last 2 fights would suggest differently. He’s shown recently that he’s not able to land his power shots any longer, and he’s now someone that has problems just landing his jab.

“We may just see the best – and last – of Wladimir Klitschhko,” said Froch to skysports.com. “It’s at Wembley Stadium and if he is thinking this is my final fight on this stage – with 90,000 not 80,000 – and if he thinks to himself this is it for me, my exit card, my final fight you know he is going to turn up.”

If Wladimir reverts to form, he’s going to be overly cautious against Joshua for fear of getting countered with something. This will lead to Wladimir throwing few if any power shots. If Wadimir doesn’t throw anything to make Joshua hesitant, then he’ll quickly finish him off just like he did Eric Molina in their fight on December10. Joshua didn’t jump on Molina immediately in the fight because he was respectful of his power. But when it became obvious that Molina was too afraid to throw punches, Joshua blasted him out in round 3. Molina maybe threw 4 or 5 punches in the entire fight.

It was so sad to see because it was crazy way of fighting for a professional. I thin Wladimir won’t learn from the mistakes Molina made by not throwing punches. Instead of using the blueprint created by Mihai Nistor in how to beat Joshua, Wladimir will almost surely follow Eric Molina’s blueprint in how to lose badly to Joshua by going out on a whimper. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I will be. I predict that Wladimir will fight with fear rather than intelligence in the ring.

Once Wladimir gives into his fear all of his worst nightmares will come true. Nistor knew how to fight Joshua. He stayed on the outside and would quickly dart forward to nail him with devastating 2-punch combinations to the head. Nistor used head movement when he was coming forward, and he would light Joshua up on the inside. Their 2011 fight had to finally be stopped after Joshua was wobbled by Nistor. Joshua was unhappy with the stoppage, but it was clear that he would have been knocked out if the referee hadn’t stopped it. Wladimir needs to fight like Nistor if he wants to win, but I don’t see him doing that. He’ll fight like he did against Tyson Fury and Corrie Sanders by not throwing punches.

“Klitschko is going to be at the best he can possibly be and Joshua is inexperienced,” said Froch.

Nah, I don’t see Wladimir being at his best for the Joshua fight. I expect him to be at his absolute worst. Not only will Wladimir be timid and frozen like he was in the Fury and Sanders fights, he’ll also be very ring rusty due to him not having fought since 2015.