• Steve Bunce

Anthony Joshua exposed - the fight that will reveal all

Anthony Joshua stopped veteran Matt Skelton in the second round earlier this year © Getty Images

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The news that raw novice heavyweight Anthony Joshua has been matched with Kevin Johnson, in one of the boldest fights I can remember for any young pretender, is refreshing.

Johnson, who lost his WBC title bout with Vitali Klitschko on points in 2009, is arguably the best heavyweight in the last 25 years never to have won a world heavyweight title and there is some good competition.

The fight with Joshua will take place at the O2 Arena in London on January 31 and it will push Joshua, who has not yet broken a sweat in 10 fights, right to the front of the short list of promising, feted but inexperienced contenders if he wins. It has to still be an 'if', as far as I am concerned.

Johnson is 35, has lost six of his 36 fights but has never been stopped and has survived against genuine world-class contenders - in addition to big Vitali - in a lot of hard fights. He took Tyson Fury to 12 rounds in 2012, Dereck Chisora dropped him heavily earlier this year but he still went the full 10 rounds and in his last fight, which was in April, he extended the playboy banger Manny Charr the full 10.

Joshua has not put a foot or fist wrong during his brief career but heavyweights are not like other fighters. He has been praised as having the potential to be the greatest fighter ever - yes, the greatest fighter ever - by his promoter, Eddie Hearn, whose only other dalliance as a promoter in the heavyweight business was with Audley Harrison. I like big Aud, but surely young Eddie's comparison chart has a few glaring flaws.

Thankfully, big Josh has a sensible head on his shoulders and knows all too well that it was not too long ago that he was stopped at the European amateur championships and before that, dropped and beaten in another amateur contest by Dillian Whyte above a boozer one night in north London.

Joshua is an exceptional talent and any kind of win against Johnson, who is not yet too old, too weary or too slow, would be fantastic. Johnson, by the way, will see this as a way to get right back in contention in a heavyweight division that is about to be split open like a shot-gunned melon.

What happens if Johnson is still moving after four rounds? What happens if Johnson is still moving after four rounds and has landed with a dozen jabs? Nobody has yet managed that and we have no idea what will happen to Joshua's heavy legs and massive arms.

We are talking about heavyweights and there has not been one born yet that was invincible or even close to indestructible. We know that Joshua is brave, we have seen him out of his head, but still upright in his losing European championship fight; he also had to dig his toes into the canvas and bite down on his gum shield to win his Olympic gold medal. And, by the way, he fully deserved it.

The best heavyweights in the last quarter of a century improved after defeats, and two of them won Olympic gold medals just like big Josh. Both Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko fine-tuned their muscle-heavy bodies and adjusted their gung-ho style once they had suffered crushing defeats.

Wlad was rescued in round 11 against a tough guy called Ross Puritty and his great career was salvaged; Lewis was knocked out in two by Oliver McCall because he believed his own mad hype. Both, and this is crucial, had been called untouchable and unbeatable before their awful early defeats. Puritty had lost 13 of his 38 fights and McCall, one of boxing's most enigmatic men, was fresh from a rehab centre after his latest head-to-head battle with cocaine.

No heavyweight is beyond defeat and Johnson could very well expose Joshua. That is why this is simply one fight that nobody can miss. Thankfully, it does not have the folly of pay-per-view attached to it.

Kevin Johnson was beaten by Dereck Chisora in a points decision in February © Getty Images

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