Fight fans less than impressed with Carlos Takam in public workout session, but boxer insists he can KO Anthony Joshua
Fight fans got their first look at AJ's stand-in opponent on Wednesday... and were underwhelmed as he sweated through 15-minute session
CARDIFF got its first look at Carlos Takam last night and was not exactly overwhelmed by Anthony Joshua’s stand-in opponent.
The French-based Cameroonian flew in from Paris for a public work-out in front of 1,400 curious fight fans at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
And he looked every one of his 36 years as he sweated through a 15-minute routine with his training team.
At little more than six feet in his bare feet, Takam is almost as wide as he is tall. He looks like he has been hit by a lift and will struggle to live with Joshua’s superior reach on Saturday night.
He has taken the fight at less than two weeks’ notice after mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev pulled out with a chest injury last Monday.
Yet with a record of 35 wins in 39 professional fights, including 27 victories inside the distance, he insists he is ready to shock the world by inflicting the first defeat of Joshua’s career.
“If I can do things differently to what other boxers have done against Joshua, I will have a chance to win by knockout,” he insists.
“It will be just as important for me to work Joshua’s body as well as his head and my speed will be crucial, too.
“A lot of people have asked me if I see any weaknesses in Joshua’s style. All I can say is that we will on fight night. But I do know that he has a lot of quality.”
Currently rated 19th in the heavyweight pecking order, there is little in Takam’s record to suggest that he can take Joshua’s WBA and IBF belts in front of 80,000 people at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
He has already lost on points to WBO champion Joseph Parker and was stopped in ten rounds by the highly-regarded Russian Alexander Povetkin.
But he insists: “I’m not bothered about fighting in front of 80,000 people, the only people in the ring will be myself and Joshua, nothing else matters except the two athletes.
“When I lose a fight, I accept that I lost it and move on. I respect the decision of the judges against Parker but I try not to look at it as a defeat, just as more of a way to learn.
“I always ask myself what I could have done better in a fight and what was missing from my game.”