Joshua vs Takam: Carlos Takam 'more of a threat' than Kubrat Pulev, says Adam Booth
Wednesday 25 October 2017 10:21, UK
Carlos Takam poses "more of a threat" to Anthony Joshua than his original opponent Kubrat Pulev, according to Adam Booth.
Booth, the former trainer of David Haye and George Groves, has spent time with Takam in the gym and has backed the fighter to cause Joshua problems if he takes the fight into the later rounds.
"I know Carlos Takam quite well because we had him in for sparring on a few occasions when David Haye was world heavyweight champion," he told Sky Sports News.
"In my opinion he's potentially more of a threat than the original opponent Pulev.
If Joshua doesn't get a clear start and trouble him early in the fight then it could get tricky for him and harder work for him in the second half
"He's very strong, forget the fact that he's 6ft 1in. He is an absolute unit of a man and in the second half of a fight grows in confidence and grows in strength.
"So if Joshua doesn't get a clear start and trouble him early in the fight then it could get tricky for him and harder work for him in the second half."
Booth was full of praise for the world heavyweight champion and expects him to be better than ever ahead of his fourth title defence.
"He's improving fight by fight and I think he's learning as a champion which is a credit to him because it's hard enough to win a world championship when you're a fully developed fighter," he added.
"But I think he's making adjustments and improvements in his training throughout his career.
"I expect him to have made improvements after the Klitschko fight because that one was obviously harder for him than he would have wanted it to be.
"I expect Joshua to be sharper, quicker and more dangerous than he ever has been in the early rounds of this fight.
