All-conquering Anthony aiming to become true lord of the ring
Briton promises ‘there will be blood’ in heavyweight title unification bout with Parker
SHEFFIELD, England — If 2017 for Anthony Joshua was about becoming the world’s No 1 heavyweight, 2018 is all about creating his legacy.
“No one is on the journey anymore,” Joshua said last week. “We’re at the destination.”
Bold words for someone with just 20 professional fights to his name. Then again, Joshua is not your average fighter.
Potentially within four months, the 28-year-old Brit could be the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000, and the first boxer to hold all four belts in the division — WBA, IBF, WBO and WBC.
Stage 1 comes on March 31 when Joshua, the WBA and IBF champ, fights WBO titleholder Joseph Parker in front of around 80,000 spectators in Cardiff.
If all goes to plan in the Welsh capital, the fight the world wants to see should be next — Joshua versus WBC champion Deontay Wilder, a meeting of the sport’s most destructive punchers.
“It will be in 2018,” Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, promised.
Joshua knows Wilder is the big one, the fight that will define him even more than last year’s epic victory over Wladimir Klitschko before 90,000 fans at Wembley that rocketed him into the sport’s global consciousness.
When the American’s name was brought up at a media session at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, northern England, on Wednesday, Joshua sat up straight in his chair and moved forward.
He spoke of Wilder being an unrealistic negotiator — “he has to stop living in a fantasy land” — but Hearn, sitting alongside him, said it is a fight that somehow will get made.
First of all, however, Joshua has to deal with Parker, a New Zealander who arrives in the UK with a record of 24-0 (18 KOs) but with the least recognized of the four titles.
Parker will be in uncharted territory, having typically fought in front of crowds of around 10,000 in his native country.
Since becoming heavyweight champion in April 2016, Joshua has fought in front of crowds of 16,000 (London’s O2 Arena, 21,000 (Manchester Arena, 90,000 (Wembley) and 78,000 (Cardiff’s Principality Stadium).
Joshua believes his bigarena experience will be an advantage in Cardiff — a place he calls his “winter home”.
“I know the ring walk, I know the changing room. I just know what it is like to be victorious, I know how to deal with a lot of distractions of being in an audience so big and how to entertain people,” Joshua said.
“I know my way around the ring: I spar in a ring the same size as the fight ring. A happy fighter will perform a lot better.”
Joshua, who said “definitely there will be blood”, is set to come in at 246 pounds, eight pounds lighter than he weighed for his last fight — a 10-round win over late replacement Carlos Takam in October that made it 20 straight stoppages for the Londoner.
“I should be a lot quicker and I will be able to outwit him,” said the London 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist.
Laughing and joking, Joshua couldn’t have been more laid back in the countdown to the unification fight as he put on a show for the international media in the gym used by Britain’s Olympic boxers, his body looking as chiseled as ever.
To freshen up his latest training camp, he has been getting up later in the mornings to give his body more rest after training sessions.
He said he feels in great shape — and he is happy to laugh off the “king of steroids” jibe made by Parker in the build-up.
“A happy fighter is a good fighter” is his motto of late, and he is living up to it.
No one is on the journey anymore. We’re at the destination”
Anthony Joshua, WBA and IBF world heavyweight champion