PAYDAY PACKS PUNCH

FROM BACK PAGE the fight goes the distance – and it could be more given he stopped all 20 of his previous opponents.

It will beat the £15m from Joshua’s clash with Carlos Takam and take his earnings to about £50m from his last three bouts.

He is set to eclipse Lennox Lewis as Britain’s greatest heavyweight, but thinks champions do not always get the credit they deserve.

Despite his box-office appeal, the unbeaten WBA Super and IBF king said: “I don’t look at it like I’m a star. I feel everyone is waiting for you to fail. That’s why I look at it that way.

“It’s not my choice to dictate if I’m Britain’s best heavyweight. I’ve had more defences than Lewis – he lost in his fourth one. If you want to talk about facts and stats, that’s his stat which I’ve matched or beaten.

“I don’t want to be blasé. I don’t pat myself on the back. Look at what Wladimir Klitschko did, but nobody gave him a pat on the back.

“A great heavyweight and it wasn’t until we had a fight that he got the credit he deserved.”