It’s always been my opinion that there should be two types of boxing: boxing, and heavyweight boxing. In the former you can afford to be sloppy on occasion, taking the occasional punch or two to give one of your own. This is not a luxury you can afford in heavyweight boxing, because a split second’s loss of focus can spell the end of a career.

Antony Joshua is riding high at the moment, coming off a gold medal performance at the London Olympics and sitting on a professional record of 5 (5) – 0. He’s fast becoming one of Eddie Hearn’s marquee names, knocking out all of his prior opponents within two rounds, but at what point is Hearn going to start upping his level of opposition? It’s always difficult to matchmake for a heavyweight because one wrong step or move could end up with you being on the wrong end of a knock out – everyone in the heavyweight division can punch, even the ones who can’t, owing to the fact they weigh 17 stone. What Joshua needs to further his career is to see a simultaneous increase in the quality of his opponents and the length of time that his bouts last. That said, this increase needs to be very gradual, because if he sees too much too soon it won’t end well.

It seems odd to think about it now, but only two years ago David Price was in a similar position to where we expect to see Joshua soon: unbeaten, the nation’s darling, blasting opposition out of the ring left right and centre. Then came the heavy-handed Tony Thompson. Over the course of seven rounds in two fights, Price saw his position fall from ‘the next great British heavyweight’ to just another failed prospect. This was largely the result of poor matchmaking and excessive media hype. In the ten fights he had prior to Thompson, only two made it past the fourth round. Price, for all his talent (and he is talented), just wasn’t ready for the highest level of opposition when it came because he hadn’t experienced the wealth of different situations necessary for a fighter to make the grade at that level. It’s fine knocking out smaller men with your favourite punch to make yourself look good on smaller cards, but if you aren’t honing your skills while you’re in the ring there’s little point you being in there. Price found this out the hard way.

This is what’s worrying about Joshua. Eddie Hearn has taken the same approach to his boxing promotions as he has to his darts: he’s tarted it up to appeal to a much broader and more casual audience. Hearn knows that the casual boxing fan isn’t going to spend 50 quid on a ticket to watch five fights of boxers pitter-pattering each other over 12 rounds – they want to see knockouts. By putting Antony Joshua in the ring with a much lesser opponent they’re guaranteed a spectacular knockout and this isn’t really allowing Joshua to hone his skills. At this point Hearn has no real incentive to start upping the level of Joshua’s opposition; just pad his record for the sake of his fans and, more importantly to him, his cards.

The jump to the upper professional ranks is often a culture shock on a par with a Championship team moving up to the Premier League. It takes time for fighters to bed in and if David Price’s story isn’t enough of a warning for Joshua then surely Vasyl Lomachenko’s is. The most decorated amateur boxer of all time boasting a record of 396 – 1 (his one loss twice avenged), two golds at World Amateur Championships, one gold at European Amateur Championships and two golds at Olympics games, (Beijing and London respectively), in only his second professional bout he was asked to fight Orlando Salido, a tough Mexican veteran, for the WBO World Featherweight title. And on the night, Lomachenko’s amateur experience simply didn’t measure up; Salido did everything you would expect a veteran to do: he hit him with numerous low blows, was punching in the clinches, came in overweight, Simply put; he took Lomachenko into deep water and drowned him. Progress can’t be rushed no matter calibre of the fighter.

At the same time, Joshua could well turn out to be the master of his own downfall simply because he is so good. When he lets his hands go he’s devastating – if he lands a clean one-two any fight is pretty much over – so whereas it’s easy for me to say that what he needs is rounds, it’s harder for him to actually get them. Darch and Kisicek both took the other most highly-rated British heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (Tyson’s cousin) the distance but could only last two rounds apiece against Joshua; Alfredo Avila took an albeit overweight Dereck Chisora nine rounds but could only last one against our Josh.

There are other methods to bedding a heavyweight. Peter Fury has taken a sink-or-swim approach to his own son’s career, having Hughie fight twelve times in 2013 (and to think people lost their shit because Floyd fought twice) and even sending him into one fight with a cut still fresh from his last one, saying “a loss is just a loss”. This approach has paid off, as he’s currently sitting on a 13 (8) – 0 record. It seems this outlook can work for some fighters but whereas Fury has been allowed to do it by sneaking under the radar, everything Joshua has done since turning professional has been high-profile; keeping him busy by throwing him into regular monthly fights would attract similiarly high-profile criticism. In this sense the appearance of Joshua has aided Fury, allowing him to quietly craft out a career away from the limelight. He’s a massive body puncher who sits behind a great jab, and he would have the expectations of a nation on his shoulders if Joshua wasn’t around to take that poisoned chalice. I think he’ll eventually go on to surpass his cousin and we could see a potential Fury/Joshua domestic ‘super fight’ somewhere down the line if all goes well. Only time will tell.

Joshua, for all his brilliance, still has a lot to work on. He looks very tentative in the opening exchanges of fights, unwilling to take a punch; he’s had five fights now and it feels like he’s never even had his chin touched. He needs to be put in uncomfortable situations. How will he react to taking a big punch – we know he’s been put down in the amateurs before by Dellian Whyte, but how will he react in a real fight? How will he cope when he’s behind on the cards? At this rate we aren’t going to find out soon, and with all this in mind here are some of my suggestions for future Joshua fights:

Zack Page: Pretty much the ultimate journeyman for heavyweights in training, he’s fought Tyson Fury, Manny Charr, Chedric Agnew, Kubrat Pulev, Michael Sprott – the list goes on. He might have lost to them all, but managed to take them the distance. He’s 40 now but he should still be able to take Joshua rounds; he could be used twice in a 6-rounder and then an 8-rounder if all went well.

Fres Oquendo: Another heavyweight journeyman around 40 who’s lost to the highest level of competition; he’s managed to take Chris Byrd, Evander Holyfield, James Toney and Oliver McCall the distance. Could be used for a 6-rounder soon – Joshua should soundly outbox him, though he’d still have a puncher’s chance.

James Toney: James Toney is shot to shit, so this is just me trying to deliver the coup de grâce to his career. He’s 45 now and he’s still calling out top heavyweights (I read him calling out Deontay Wilder today after his win over Malik Scott at the weekend). He’s expressed interest in this fight before (after they both fought on the prizefighter bill) and in a perfect world Hearn would give him a good payday, Joshua would soundly beat him and then he’d retire. James Toney, if you’re reading this (and I presume you’re not because at this point you’ve taken so many heavy blows to the head that I doubt that you can read anymore) – please retire, for the sake of your fans and your health.

Audley Harrison: Stop laughing, this would actually be a really good fight for Joshua. Harrison’s height and reach could cause him some problems – everyone Joshua’s fought so far has been at least 4 inches shorter than him – and Hearn could bill it as a ‘clash of the gold medallists’. It wouldn’t last too long but it would be good experience.

Oliver McCall: I only realised McCall was still going when I was rewatching the Bruno fight last month; he’s apparently still taking fighters rounds, his last 9 fights all going the distance. He’s 48 and it should be target practice at this stage for Joshua, but again at least it’ll last rounds – maybe an 8-rounder would be appropriate.

Michael Sprott: Better than his 40-21 record suggests, Sprott would be a good step up in class for Joshua, having made it clear in the press recently that he wants the fight. I would expect Joshua to outclass him but this is the type of step up that I’d like to see Joshua take soon, maybe in a couple of fights’ time.

Tor Hammer: Hammer can punch but he’s got no heart. He was giving Andy Ruiz a bit of a boxing lesson before he retired on his stool for no real reason. He’s short and Joshua should jab him to death but again this is a step up.

Kevin Johnson: Now this is a real step up in class. Johnson, like Chisora said before their bout, doesn’t come to win but to survive. A good defensive fighter who specialises in making opponents look bad, he could take Joshua into the Championship rounds and make life difficult for him. I’d like this fight for Joshua after he’s had 10-12 bouts. A win here would be a real statement.

Joshua’s next fight is due on April 19th on Scott Quigg’s undercard at the Manchester MEN arena. His opponent is currently TBA; this is a common tactic so that the opponent won’t have sufficient time to prepare to fight his style. This TBA fellow has fought Gary Russell Jr more than a few times though.