British Boxer Anthony Joshua has already announced the date when he’ll defend his IBF heavyweight title for the first time. Joshua broke the news to his fans with a video on Twitter, saying the date had been set for the 25th of June at London’s O2 Arena.
Unlike many boxers before him, Anthony Joshua decided not to organize a busy press conference to announce the news. Instead he chose to speak directly to the fans in a short video that he shot himself on his smartphone without any of the big production values we’ve come to know from the sport.
In the video, Joshua said “I’ve been speaking to my coach and I wanted the closest fight day possible because I’m feeling good. So the date to put in your diary is June 25th back at the O2 Arena for my first title defense and a jam packed undercard. He also said that he “couldn’t wait to be back” and “performing” to a crowd soon.
Since turning pro after winning the gold medal in the Super-Heavyweight category at his home Olympics in 2012, he has made an impressive record for himself. No opponent has been announced yet to face Anthony Joshua, but many boxing betting fans will already feel that their money is safe once the gloves are off here in his home country after dominating his title win. Some boxing betting websites like Coral are already offering odds on some potential opponents for him despite nobody yet being announced. Coral are currently offering odds of 2/5 for Joshua to beat fellow Brit David Haye in a possible match-up.
There is only one fight in their boxing betting market where Joshua has more cautious and that’s against Tyson Fury. Even against such a dominant figure in the sport like Fury, he still has odds of 8/11 to win compared to his opponent who has odds of 11/10. His title winning fight against Charles Martin was only his 16th professional fight, but he managed to win the belt in just two rounds. Before that fight, he also won all of his previous fifteen fights by knockout. But nobody would be sure of the outcome if Fury and Joshua got into the ring. Luckily if you’re a betting fan then Coral will give you a free bet when you join that you could use on boxing match-ups like these where the competitors are so evenly matched.
But both of these names are just speculation and there has been no sign that either of them will fight him on June 25th. The date is just a couple of months away so the promoters will have to work quickly to find him a competitor that can prepare for such a tough match in time. Joshua’s first title defense fight was due to take place on the July 9th but that date changed when Tyson Fury announced that his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko would take place on the same evening in Manchester. Despite a huge amount of support for Anthony Joshua, even he couldn’t draw in the same crowds as the the WBA, IBO and WBO heavyweight champion can.