Anthony Joshua To Fight Charles Martin April 9

Anthony Joshua will challenge Charles Martin for the IBF world heavyweight title at The O2 on April 9 as Martin would have to travel to England to make the first defence of the title that he won in Brooklyn in January against Vyacheslav Glazkov.

Joshua said this about the fight “Fighting for the heavyweight world title has been a dream of mine since I turned professional. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to turn that dream in to reality. Not only that having the chance to fight for it in my home town at The O2 and live on Sky Sports is unbelievably exciting. Charles Martin is a great fighter and a hungry competitor so I am going to have to produce the performance of my career to claim that belt”

Martin has this to say “I told my team I wanted the best challenger possible for my first defence and Anthony Joshua's name kept coming up. I'm coming to the UK to make a statement that I am the best heavyweight in the world and no one is taking my title. I'm world champion, so that doesn't mean just sit back and make easy defences in the US, it means facing the biggest challenges out there. I respect Anthony Joshua and everything he has accomplished, but on April 9 he's getting knocked out”