Anthony Joshua is a once-in-a-generation boxer. It's time for the next chapter in his story
There is no uncertainty now, no ambiguity, no doubts about heart and chin, and during the next three or four years it will be a pleasure watching Joshua continue to grow
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Your support makes all the difference.In April in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium, Anthony Joshua went on a personal journey deep into the very heart of heavyweight boxing in an unforgettable fight.
Joshua was dragged stunned, hurt and confused through six rounds of pure hell by Wladimir Klitschko in one of the most brutal and pure fights for the heavyweight championship in decades; Klitschko was over in the fifth, Joshua dropped in the sixth and both went down like they planned on staying down. It was mayhem on the night.
“In the fifth I went to a neutral corner, looked round and I couldn’t believe Wlad was getting up - he was like the Terminator,” said Joshua. “I really loved that fight, it was like something from the 70s. A great fight to be in.”
It finally ended in the 11th, and in the relief of celebration, an ecstatic outpouring shared by every single witness to the fight, it was too easy to forget how clinical Joshua had been at the end, dropping Klitschko for the final time.
A recent documentary about the April fight on BBC was graphic and Joshua’s glee as he talked through the last seconds offered a rare insight, a raw glimpse inside the head of a great fighter. Joshua was brutal on the night and in the documentary.
A rematch was agreed: Las Vegas, Lagos and Dubai were on a shortlist of destinations and then Big Wlad listened to his aching body and retired. “That last round finish persuaded him to stop fighting,” said Joshua, and he is right. Joshua, meanwhile, took his time letting his battered and bruised body recover and every day has been necessary in the healing process.
Two months ago a flat-faced Bulgarian called Kubrat Pulev was named as the opponent for Joshua this Saturday at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Pulev was the IBF’s number one contender, the fight a mandatory - and he was also a test. But Pulev officially withdrew seven days ago and was rapidly replaced by Carlos Takam, the IBF’s number three, and a difficult switch.
Takam is about five inches shorter and poses a totally different set of problems to the problems Pulev would have posed. Both Takam and Pulev belong at the top of a second-tier of heavyweight contenders, tucked in nice and clear and in front of dozens of other pretenders and wannabes.
The pair are behind WBO champion Joseph Parker, WBC champion Deontay Wilder, the absent Tyson Fury and the too-often missing Alexander Povetkin. The bookies are not impressed with Takam but it is likely they would be as brazen totting up any other opponent against Joshua right now; Joshua looks and acts like the best active heavyweight on the planet right now. He has the regal quality that Lennox Lewis so splendidly had and people adore him for it.
Joshua will not have to go and find Takam on Saturday and that will suit both boxers perfectly. Takam has been on alert since the original fight was announced, having been warned he was the replacement if Pulev withdrew, and will be in decent shape. But the Frenchman is unlikely to have twelve hard rounds in him; he has a chance if he can make Joshua surrender his height and reach advantages and force the fight, which is both something Joshua should not do and something he will probably relish doing. Joshua’s attraction - nearly 80,000 tickets sold inside an hour - is simple and beyond the endless smiles, warm gestures, decency and old-fashioned values, he just loves to fight.
Joshua is now 28, this is just his 20th professional fight and he is, remarkable as it might sound, still a boxing baby in many ways. This is also his fifth world title fight but until beating Klitschko he refused to let people call him “champ”. There is no uncertainty now, no ambiguity, no doubts about heart and chin, and during the next three or four years it will be a pleasure watching Joshua biff and bash his way through an agitated waiting list of boxers, all of whom are now screaming his name.
Joshua is the sport’s cash cow and they, trust me, do not come along every generation. Takam will not disappoint and will earn every penny of his hastily agreed fee for his part in the Joshua story.
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