Joshua will make no apologies for early end to first title defence
World champion insists he’s keeping his feet on the ground in bid to create a legacy
AFTER the switch of opponent, change in tactics, big weight gain and several sessions walking through hordes of fans kissing babies, it is time for Anthony Joshua to strip and fight.
Joshua defends his world heavyweight belts against Carlos Takam, who is either the luckiest or the unluckiest man in boxing, in Cardiff tonight in front of 78,000 in a fight increasingly being condemned as a mismatch.
Takam took the fight at short notice, is a long way short of peak, but an equal distance from being the sacrificial lamb of some perverted narratives.
Takam received a hefty down payment on his eventual selection, which was money to spend in preparation for the call he received less than two weeks ago telling him he was getting the fight with Joshua.
Takam is a big boy, a grown man, a tough man and also it seems an honest man, but he did not train like a hungry man for 12 weeks. If he had prepared like a desperate dog for a fat bone, the fight would have gone the full 12 rounds; Takam cut corners and that is understandable when the date and opponent is not confirmed. Takam is only human and that will not be enough against Joshua, sorry.
Last week Joshua was a lot slimmer than he will be when the first bell sounds and that was part of the plan for fighting Kubrat Pulev, the Bulgarian who pulled out and lost his millions; a fight with Takam requires a bit of bulk and Joshua will be 19 pounds heavier than the smiling Frenchman, which does matters. SHORTER The height is less of a problem and that is because Takam is always shorter.
Joshua will bully Takam from the first bell and it might not be pretty to watch, as Joshua hits, pushes and does little to make it last.
It could look like a mismatch but it is not – but then again, Joshua could make an indecent amount of fights right now look like bloody mismatches.
There has been very little bold talk from Takam, which is always refreshing in a fight for the heavyweight title, and Joshua has made few apologies in advance of what he hopes will be a quick night.
“I have to move on from my last fight and get on with my next fight – that means beating Takam and not living off the last fight,” Joshua said this week. “It can’t always be about that fight.”
“Carlos is a completely different animal to Klitschko. In terms of style, technique and preparation, everything’s completely different. My mindset’s completely different, and it’s going to be a completely different fight.
“It’s not like this brings an ego. I keep my feet on the ground. I’m still grinding, I’m still hungry.”
Back in April Joshua won “that fight” when he dropped and stopped Wladimir Klitschko in a fabulous brawl that satisfied everybody in the boxing business. It proved Joshua was not just a hopeful work-in-progress, not a protected fighter with profile and a gold medal.
The Klitschko fight made him the number one heavyweight in the world and that title comes with some truly tortuous expectations.
“I’ve managed to become heavyweight champion of the world and provided I stay disciplined you’ll hear of me for the next 10 years and I’ll progress as a person.
He continued: “This guy is realising ‘this is my chance’ – I know what it’s like. There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we’re both going to run as hard as each other.
“We’re on an elite level and you’re going to see an elite fight, a 12-round war – and you have to be tough to get through it.”
The best heavyweight champions in history have fought men inferior to Takam, men with less ambition, fewer credentials but they toiled in different days. WINK Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes were in some outrageous fights and everybody in the business moved on with a conspiratorial wink and the hope that the next fight would be harder. Please, don’t get me started on the terminological trickery of the Don King days when an endless list of apathetic fighters fought with all the passion of a yoga mat.
If Takam had been scheduled to fight Joshua since the day Pulev was announced, at the start of September, this would be a tough job.
It will still be good to watch until it is all over before the end of the sixth, which is not as long as Takam wanted and not as long as Joshua expected.
Even before he steps between the ropes, Joshua has already crowned a successful week out of the ring. Promoter Eddie Hearn never ceases to be amazed by the growing appeal of AJ.
“I’ve never known a person or an athlete or a sports star that touches so many different genres and ages and demographics.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are a six or seven-year-old kid, an 18-year-old man, a middle-aged man, a housewife, a grandmother, you love Anthony Joshua. You cannot not love him. I’ve never know anyone say a bad word about him.
“He’s got the support of the country because of his approach and his attitude and because of the way he treats people. I got a very nice text from him a day or two ago.
“I was feeling a bit down with all this Takam and Pulev stuff,” Hearn said. “He texted me out of the blue and said, ‘I just wanted you to know I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done. Without you this show may not have even happened’. That inspires you.” (© Independent News Service)