Joshua eyes up Wilder
CHAMP TARGETS AMERICAN AFTER STUNNING KO
ANTHONY JOSHUA is the best finisher seen at Wembley since Jimmy Greaves but, like the Spurs and England legend, the world heavyweight champion is not so hot at defending.
Not when Joshua is in the mood for a death or glory shoot-out against one of the most dangerous strikers in the world.
This is when Joshua is at his most thrilling and why a crowd — as vast and tumultuous as those who once relished watching Greavsie rout Scotland — exulted in Joshua’s destruction of an invading Russian.
Old enmities die hard so the faster and more decisive the execution the better, and Joshua despatched Alexander Povetkin with summary brutality.
It is the high-wire uncertainty which makes it such dramatic theatre. Just as Greaves used to snaffle winning goals out of nothing, so Joshua plundered victory from the fear of impending defeat.
The choice of weapon differs. Greaves implanted the stiletto. Joshua impacts the sledgehammer. Equally deadly.
Joshua was in trouble — four rounds to two down on my scorecard and several others’ — when he landed a crushing right-hander in the seventh.
Povetkin reeled back, semi-conscious. Joshua went for the kill. Blows of savage accuracy sent his man down. When the Russian rose, heroically, the barrage resumed and both the referee and the corner-men rushed to his rescue.
Here was the spectacular finish to reassure a wavering faithful and to re-impose the will of Joshua on the ring’s marquee division. That it should lead to a fight against Deontay Wilder to become the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis — which is by no means certain — is what brings us to the tingle of doubt.
When Joshua gets hit his overriding response is to hit back in anger. As for the defence, it doesn’t just rest, it goes out of the window. And hit he certainly was by Povetkin. Hit hardest in the first round, when a left hook set Joshua’s knees-a-knocking and he did well to remain upright.
That shot also bloodied and broke his nose. Yet rather than retreat and regroup he went swinging in the rain which drizzled across the north-west London evening. As a consequence he left himself wide open to several more thudding punches to the head. Not only lefts but rights. Had it been Wilder landing the latter it is unlikely Joshua would have survived the first of them. Povetkin has power but nothing approaching the concussive force of the American who defends his WBC world title against Tyson Fury on December 1.
Joshua the street-fighter who reverts to that basic instinct is the back story to the seventhround spectacular which thrilled the people. Not only the boxing community but the wider population who have bought into his journey of redemption — hook, cross and sinker.
A return to the technical prudence of his previous outing, against Joseph Parker, might be advisable if and when the Wilder fight ever happens. But when the going gets tough Joshua can’t help himself.
‘I wanted a proper fight this time,’ he said. ‘I love a dust-up.’
He took as much if not more pride in his fighting heart as the stupendous stoppage: ‘I showed how much I can take as well as give.’ Then he added, a mite disconcertingly: ‘This fight has taken away the fear of losing I always had until now, before I fight Wilder.’
Among the several factors which may push any worry in this regard to the back of his fans’ minds is the knowledge that Fury will not make himself so readily available to virtual decapitation by Wilder.
Should the elusive Gypsy King confound the Bronze Bomber, a likely rematch clause would render either of them indisposed for the April 13 date which is next on Joshua’s Wembley agenda.
But for his delivering the wow factor against Povetkin, it is by no means certain that the faithful would have been so eager to return in such numbers for another lesser opponent. Now they will be back, even if it is for an unloved rematch with Dillian Whyte.
That, too, will play into promoter Eddie Hearn’s sparse negotiating strategy with which Wilder is already unhappy.
‘That fight will happen,’ promises Joshua. ‘It’s the biggest fight in the world. So it has to happen.’ The fans agree, in overwhelming numbers on Joshua’s own website. Still it begs the question of when will it happen. April? Next September? The year 2020, with Wilder getting conveniently older all the time?
For the time being, Hearn is probably right in saying: ‘We can get another 80,000 at Wembley whoever is in the opposite corner.’