Jurassic Joshua stops shot Sprott, DeGale KOs Periban and woe is Groves

It’s hard to dislike Anthony Joshua.

When it comes to demeanor, he’s a star. He’s tall, dark and handsome. Camera-friendly, fan-friendly and has that golden charm.

His competition to date is largely unremarkable, with Denis Bakhtov the only semi-notable opponent. But even touting Bakhtov’s name as a decent win would prompt a shoulder shrug, meh and a come back next year attitude.

Having Michael Sprott as an opponent continued that leit motif of mis-matched journeymen seemingly served up to ensure Joshua has a flawless ledger of 10 fights, 10 victories and 10 victories by way of knockout.

Even former footballer Ian Wright, a legend of Crystal Palace and Arsenal, spotted the gulf in quality between the two fighters earlier this evening at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool.

Joshua v Sprott. Reminded me of the start of Jurassic park when they fed that cow to that Velociraptor!

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) November 22, 2014

Yes Sir. Joshua went Jurassic on Sprott.

So phase one of Joshua’s development is over and done with and the head of boxing at Matchroom Sports, Eddie Hearn, can now concentrate on luring durable American boxer Kevin ‘Kingpin’ Johnson over for a card at the 02 Dome in Greenwich, London at the end of January.

While Johnson is canny at his craft and is renowned for being a distance fighter, Joshua seems confident he can knock him out.

“I won’t make any predictions about Johnson – but I think I could take him out,” explained Joshua to Sky Sports after his win over Sprott. “[Dereck] Chisora boxed him, he fought Vitali [Klitschko] so it’ll do me well to get rounds in.”

Elsewhere on the bill, James DeGale stopped Marco Antonio Periban in three rounds and George Groves defeated Denis Douglin in the seventh, however, despite both serving up victories their performances could not have been more of a contrast.

DeGale was dominant and looked every bit ready to operate at the world level. Groves, meanwhile, struggled… with a glorified light middleweight.

Carl Froch perhaps said it best – Groves looked as though he had been Cobra’d.