ANTHONY JOSHUA has been storming through the professional ranks. He’s won all 13 of his contests so far in devastating style, most recently hammering former world title challenger Kevin Johnson to defeat inside two rounds. Gary Cornish, unbeaten in 21 himself, faces Joshua next on September 12 and insists he didn’t hesitate when it came to taking the assignment.
“Not at all,” he told Boxing News. “Eddie Hearn’s put people in front of him and he’s beat them. Tommy Gilmour has put people in front of me and I’ve beat them. So we can only beat the people in front of us.”
Cornish will be up against it though. He hasn’t shown Joshua’s explosive power and even sparring partners are thin on the ground in Inverness where the Scotsman is based. “We don’t really get sparring up there. We’ve got to ship them in or travel away. Last camp we had people coming in, before that we mostly travelled,” Gary said.
Cornish hasn’t come up against anyone like Joshua yet but will train “just like I prepare for any other fight. I’m always in the gym training hard. We’ll find sparring partners that replicate his style and we’ll be ready.”
Joshua has amateur experience on his side too, as well as his Olympic gold medal, he won a World silver and national titles. Cornish only had nine amateur bouts but adds, “I’ve been making up for it in the pros. There weren’t many amateur fights out there for me but I’ve had quite a lot of pro fights. Tommy’s got them in all shapes and different sizes for me to learn and we’ve doing an apprenticeship in the pros.”
As for how he’ll actually try to contain Joshua, Cornish promises, “You’ll have to wait and see.”
