Heavyweight champ has sporting world at his feet

I WAS a very late convert to the Anthony Joshua fan club.

I always thought the 6ft 6in former bricklayer from Watford slow and cumbersome and lacking any real sort of balance to become a great fighter. But how the big man proved me wrong.

Saturday night’s World Heavyweight title bout at Wembley in front of a 90,000 sell-out crowd was as good a fight as I’ve witnessed since the Evander Holyfield/Mike Tyson era more than a generation ago.

The manner of Joshua’s victory, picking himself off the canvass for the first time in his career, was hugely impressive.

Prior to the fight, I never gave him the credit for his 18-0 unbeaten record and felt it was only a matter of time before one of the real good heavyweights put this untested paper champion on his backside.

I even felt that Wladimir Klitschko was a little over the hill and that promoter Eddie Hearn was selling a show rather than a really serious heavyweight encounter. But the 41-year-old’s impressive physique at the weighin told you the Ukrainian meant business.

This wasn’t going to be a case of another duck being lined up for Joshua to simply knock over. And so it turned out.

Joshua put his opponent on the deck in the 5th round to the delight of the partisan crowd, only for Klitschko to come roaring back in the 6th to give Joshua his first-ever taste of canvas dust in his professional career.

Klitschko wasn’t playing to the script and Joshua was now way outside his comfort zone. Klitschko’s 69-fight experience was telling and a lesser man would have wilted under the onslaught of punches. Klitschko appeared to have the young challenger in his sights, but somehow Joshua emerged from the mid-fight darkness with devastating effect.

The television almost shook as he delivered a shattering uppercut to the old champion’s chin. It wasn’t lights out for Klitschko, but it was pretty close. He showed amazing courage and strength to stay on his feet, but the end was nigh.

The referee let the 11th round drama continue to almost the bell, but he intervened in the closing seconds to save Klitschko from further punishment. The brave €20 at 2/1 on Man Utd to draw at Celta Vigo in the Europa League. Ukrainian was defeated.

Anthony Joshua is the new alpha male of the heavyweight division and untold riches lie ahead for him. Not bad for a guy who as recently as 2009 spent time in Reading jail on remand for drugs and street brawling offences.

The 27-year-old now has the sporting world at his feet. With the success of Saturday night’s promotion, London might just have replaced Las Vegas as the platform for the next generation of major prize-fighting bouts. The centre of gravity has shifted in more ways than one.

We Irish are great a claiming famous sportsmen as our own and Anthony Joshua is no different. AJ’s lineage is Nigerian and English, but he has revealed recently that his paternal grandmother was Irish. The FAI will soon be in touch.

There was another Irish connection to Saturday night’s event at Wembley, with Katie Taylor fighting on the under-card.

Katie, just like Joshua, won gold at the London Olympics and was as impressive as ever in a seventh-round stoppage of her German opponent. That’s five from five in her professional career and next up for the Bray fighter could be a November World title fight in Dublin. LAST week was a big week for 10K road races in the region, with the Dundalk 10K taking place on Tuesday evening and the Boyne 10K getting under way on Saturday. There was a huge turnout of competitors and supporters for both events, with the Dundalk race attracting almost 1,000 runners and the Drogheda version nearly double that.

I togged out for Saturday’s race along the Boyne and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the occasion. Both events created a fantastic buzz in the towns and the organisers should be congratulated on the staging of such tremendous community experiences.

It wasn’t half-bad for the business owners either. AND finally a belated well done to the Louth minor team on an excellent result last week down in Portlaoise. A late John Gallagher penalty sealed the two-point win over Laois.

The win reverses the quarter-final result from last year at the same venue. THIS weeks bet is €20 at 2/1 on Manchester United to get a draw away to Celta Vigo in Thursday night’s first leg Europa League semi-final tie.