Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Klitschko rejects Joshua power
WLADIMIR Klitschko believes Anthony Joshua is taking false confidence from his muscular build into their world heavyweight title fight.
He also i nsists their April 29 date at Wembley has not come too early in Joshua’s career and does not want to hear claims to the contrary after t he event.
Klitschko and Joshua are expected to attract a post-war British boxing record crowd of 90,000 when the latter makes the latest defence of his IBF title and when they will also fight for the WBA championship last held by Tyson Fury.
They meet amid suggestions t hat both Ukraine’s Klitschko, at 41, is i n decline and t hat Joshua may still be too raw to overcome the finest heavyweight champion of the past 15 years.
Many of those predicting victory for the 27-year-old Joshua do so on the basis of his exceptional punching power and athleticism, both of which they believe will be too much for his decorated challenger.
However, the flaws he has previously shown means comparisons have also been drawn with the popular, but at world level limited, Frank Bruno, and Klitschko expects that one-dimensional streak to undermine him.
“AJ has a lot of energy, he’s young, he wants to show it,” he said. “He has these big muscles that give him confidence. He wants to demolish people right in front of him.
“But did you hear about boxing? It’s the sweet science. Otherwise Johnny Nelson would have done the same thing, he would have been pumped up like that.”