By Corey Erdman

Both Anthony Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn have spent the early parts of fight week making Mike Tyson comparisons.

Joshua has suggested that his performance against Charles Martin on Saturday in their IBF heavyweight title bout will be reminiscent of Iron Mike's thrashing of Trevor Berbick. Hearn went so far as to say Joshua was the closest thing he'd seen to Tyson offensively since the Hall of Famer hung 'em up.

Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza, meanwhile, hopes Joshua will be like Tyson in another way. For years, Tyson was the flag-bearer for Showtime, with the vast majority of his big box-office events airing on the network.

In recent years, Showtime has shifted their focus to lighter weight classes, with the heavyweight title held by Wladimir Klitschko for the better part of the decade, and fighting on rival HBO.

But now, times have changed. There's a new champion in Tyson Fury, and a whole new crop of exciting challengers chasing the lineal crown.

“A new era of heavyweight boxing has emerged,” said Espinoza. “We're very proud to be hosting the US TV debut of Anthony Joshua, so people over here can see what the excitement is all about.”

Hearing Espinoza speak, it's clear that he believes Joshua is indeed the real deal. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist has been lauded as everything from the sport's hottest prospect, to the most promising heavyweight of the past decade. That buzz has translated into bucks, with his last two fights at the 02 Arena selling out in just six hours and 70 seconds total. On the screen, his grudge match with Dillian Whyte drew over 400,000 PPV buyers, according to several reports.

“We'd like to be his TV home for the remainder of his career. And that's for two reasons, one, because he's obviously a very skilled and entertaining fighter. But two, there is a wealth of good fights that can be made. That's really the recipe for the TV programmers dream, is not just to have charismatic skilled fighters but actually have a wealth of opponents,” said Espinoza.

Though he has a stern test in Charles Martin ahead of him this weekend, it's fun to dream about the possible matchups down the road if Joshua leaves the arena with the IBF strap.

“There are a number of them, whether it's here in the US with Deontay (Wilder), or other UK fighters, (Tyson) Fury or David Haye. There's really fertile ground in the heavyweight division,” he said.

As jaded as fans of the division understandably may be after years of disappointing matchups, even hearing those names come out of the mouth of a television executive at the same time has to be refreshing.