Joshua: “I don’t control the referee’s decision”

By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) was quick to try and put distance between himself and the decision of referee Phil Edwards to prematurely stop his fight against Carlos Takam (35-4-1, 27 KOs) in round 10 by saying, “I don’t have control” over the referee’s decisions.

(photo credit Esther Lin/SHOWTIME)

The referee Edwards jumped in at the exact wrong time to stop the Joshua-Takam fight tonight in front of a monstrously big crowd of 78,000 fans at the Principality Arena in Cardiff, Wales. The fans wanted to see the fight play out to the conclusion in round 10 after Joshua had the 36-year-old Takam hurt. Instead, the fans saw the referee Phil Edwards stop the fight with Takam still trying to fight back. It was so sad the way the referee bungled the stoppage.

“I have no interest for what’s going on with the officials,” Joshua said to the unhappy boxing fans after the fight at the Principality Stadium. “My job is the opponent. I have no interest for what’s going on with the officials. I don’t have control over the ref’s decision. It was a good fight until the ref stopped it. I have the upmost respect for Takam.”

Joshua needs to start taking some interest in what the referee does in his fights. If Joshua isn’t taking interest, then he needs to START taking an interest, because the referee put him in a position tonight where he looked bad, really bad with the way the fight was stopped prematurely.

Joshua was gassing out in the last 3 rounds, and the fight being stopped the way it helped him out. If not for the way the fight ended, we don’t know what would have happened in the last 2 rounds of the fight. Unfortunately, we’ll never get a chance to know now. That’s boxing for you.

Takam, 36, rightfully wants a rematch so he can clear up the controversy about the stoppage. I wish Takam a lot of luck, because he’s going to need it. Joshua is not going to give Takam a rematch anytime soon, if ever. Takam can certainly get in a long line with the other boxers in the top 15 at heavyweight, but it’s likely going to take Takam a long time for him to get a second chance at fighting Joshua.

“I don’t think so. I want the rematch if Anthony gives me it,” said Takam after the fight.

Takam didn’t fight well in the first 6 rounds of the contest, but he started to come on in round 7. Using his smart pressure, and speedy fast combinations, Takam got the better of Joshua in rounds 8 and 9. In the 10th, things fell apart for Takam after he was nailed by an uppercut from Joshua.

The crowd started cheering loudly, and this motivated Joshua to go after Takam and hit him with several hard shots. The rest is history. Referee Phil Edwards got a little over anxious and stopped the fight. It was poor decision-making on Edwards’ part, because Takam was not badly hurt. Anyone could see that from watching the fight. Takam was covering up and getting ready to nail Joshua with some big shots, but he was prevented from doing so by the premature stoppage by the referee Phil Edwards.

Joshua’s nose was broken early in the fight in round 2 after he collided heads with Takam. It was no one’s fault. It was just one of things where two heavyweights came forward at the same time, and Joshua’s nose took the brunt of the collision.

“Imagine if it’s broke and I couldn’t breathe, and he started catching up in the middle rounds? It would have been a disaster, so I kept my cool,” said Joshua after the fight about his broken nose.

Joshua was clearly laboring in rounds 7 through 10 due to his huge 254 pound size and his inability to breathe through his broken nose. Takam didn’t fight the right fight. He needed to follow the blueprint created by Wladimir Klitschko by attacking Joshua all out, forcing him to fight a full 3 minute round instead of giving him tons of breaks by fighting at a slow pace. As it is, Joshua was getting a lot of breaks by the referee to mess with his loose straps and to have his mouthpiece put back in.

Takam was not wowed by Joshua’s power at all. He took his shots, and kept coming forward. Joshua didn’t have a jab to speak of, and he looked very slow and vulnerable throughout the contest. Joshua was visibly slower than the fighter he’d been when he started his pro boxing career at 225 lbs. The 30 pounds that Joshua has packed on his 6’5” Frame since beginning his career in 2013 has slowed him up dramatically, leaving him more hittable than ever. The lack of speed from Joshua tonight was telling.

I don’t believe Joshua is going to have a long reign as the IBF/WBA heavyweight champion. He’s too slow, too big, and too poorly conditioned for him to stay a champion for much longer. I firmly believe WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will knock him out when the two of them face each other in 2018. It’s still unclear whether the fight will happen next year or not, because Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn seems to be dragging his feet about letting the fight happen unless Wilder does him a favor by fighting one of his Matchroom Stable fighters Dillian Whyte, who looked AWFUL tonight against Robert Helenius in the co-feature bout.

“You have to control these situations because, if I showed any signs of weakness, the ref could have jumped in,” Joshua continued.

Moments after the fight, Hearn talked of wanting to match Joshua against the following heavyweights in 2018: Deontay Wilder, Joseph Parker and Tyson Fury.

“AJ wants the belts. Deontay Wilder vs. AJ has to happen,” Hearn said. “There’s also a heavyweight called Tyson Fury who has to come back to the sport. AJ will give [fans] the fights that you want, I promise you that. Wilder, Fury, Parker are the 2018 fights. I don’t think we should go abroad, I think we should stay right here. Deontay will be relieved of his belt in 2018 by Joshua,” said Hearn.

Out of all those 3, I suspect that Joshua will only fight Parker. Hearn has been talking of wanting Deontay to prove himself by fighting Whyte, so that’s probably going to be the deal killer that prevents the Joshua-Wilder fight from taking place in 2018. Parker is an easy fight to be made, because Hearn isn’t giving him any instructions about him needing to prove himself. It’s interesting that Hearn telling Parker that he needs to prove himself by fighting Whyte or one of his other heavyweights in order to fight Joshua.

Hearn is willing to let Parker get the Joshua fight without needing to jump through a hoop by beating Dillian Whyte first. Only Wilder has to prove himself by fighting Whyte. It’s pretty clear why Hearn wants Wilder to fight Whyte, isn’t it? The only reason why Wilder is being TOLD that he has to fight Whyte first is because he’s a threat to beating Joshua. So, if somehow Whyte can get lucky and beat Wilder, then that removes the only real threat to Joshua’s reign as a heavyweight champion for the time being. Few boxing fans are buying into Hearn’s excuse about Wilder needing to fight Whyte so it’ll increase his popularity with the UK fans. That would hold water if Dillian Whyte was a popular heavyweight with a lot of fans in the UK, but he clearly isn’t. Whyte is just another one of many British heavyweights that doesn’t have a large fan base. As such, Wilder will not get more popular for beating Whyte, and I think Hearn realizes that. Again, I don’t think Hearn wants Wilder to fight Whyte in order to become more popular. I see it as a way for Hearn to potentially remove a big risk to Joshua if Whyte can beat Wilder.