Undisputed junior middleweight world champion Jermell Charlo has offered high praise to heavyweight Anthony Joshua for his recent performance.
Joshua picked up his first knockout victory since 2020, when he knocked out late replacement Robert Helenius with a brutal right hand in the seventh round.
Helenius was a late replacement for Dillian Whyte, who was pulled from the fight a week earlier after testing positive for a banned substance.
For Joshua, a former two-time world champion, it was his second fight with veteran trainer Derrick James.
Their first paired up in April, when Joshua snapped a two-fight losing streak by winning a twelve round unanimous decision over Jermaine Franklin.
Charlo is also trained by James, which allowed the undisputed beltholder to watch Joshua up close.
“I don’t want to speak too much on that but AJ did a great job,” Charlo told Mirror Fighting. “He won the fight, of course it wasn’t as fast as Wilder which everybody is comparing themselves too, but he did what he had to do. He won, that’s a good thing.”
James is currently preparing Charlo for his showdown with undisputed super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, which takes place on September 30 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Joshua is being lined for a potential mega-bout with former WBC world champion Deontay Wilder. The two sides are in talks for a January date in Saudi Arabia.
Wilder has been out of the ring since scoring a brutal one-punch knockout of Helenius last October at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.