Klitschko offers Joshua some food for thought
THE young lion of London is being force-fed in readiness for entering the arena as a devouring monster.
The old Ukrainian underdog is learning new tricks in hope that even a giant can discover an incredible lightness of being.
So into what will the graceful arcs of Wembley Stadium be transformed next Saturday?
A Colosseum in which Anthony Joshua gratifies the bloodlust of 90,000 spectators baying adulation for their gladiator?
Or a Stardust Ballroom beneath whose twinkling lights Wladimir Klitschko quick-steps his way into history and the hearts of the people?
Neither of these combatants for the heavyweight championship of the world could have applied greater diligence to their rigours of preparation.
Joshua has delved into every known aspect of sports medical science. He has sat in ice chambers, breathed through oxygen masks, worn monitors of all his bodily functions and responded to their readings.
All that to minimise rest and recovery time before ensuing sessions of perspiration and punishment.
In the hardest game, they talk of the need to live the life. Joshua has submitted to that mantra wholesale, much of the time in almost monastic retreat in Sheffield, where his trainer Rob McCracken also coaches the UK’s next generation of Olympic boxers.
All that in addition to the physical routines of an intense training camp.
Then there is the diet. Joshua’s nutritionist supplies him with a menu which enables him to ship double the recommended intake of 2,500 calories a day.
He ingests supplements to build muscle and develop yet more of the punching power which has stopped all his professional opponents to date.
The benefits of that can be seen in the selfies he posts of his bulging, glistening physique. That encourages him to predict: ‘I’m going for the knock-out. That’s what I do.’
Indeed he does. Eighteen times in quick succession thus far.
Klitschko is impressed, saying: ‘Anthony is a tremendous athlete.’
Yet his own work — more traditional, though much of it is given that he is a 41-year-old veteran — is conditioned also by the memory of how another Englishman, Tyson Fury, danced him to distraction and the loss of all the world titles he held for a decade. The IBF belt now worn by Joshua among them.
Proven though his methods have been, Dr Steelhammer has also been seen in Austria as quicker on his feet, faster of hand, nimbler on his toes and more elusive in his movement.
The intention, clearly, is to enhance speed and mobility without reduction of his own destructive capacity for hitting.
The age difference, Joshua is 14 years younger, factors into that thinking.
Yet Klitschko turns that seeming disadvantage into a playful take on the Colosseum narrative, saying: ‘Can you believe that at my age a man who has been world heavyweight champion for 11 years is now the underdog?
‘So Anthony’s promoter says it is going to be a painful night for Klitschko. So the pressure is on Joshua to deliver a painful night for Klitschko.
‘I understand they see me as old and over the hill. As the underdog, I am considered food for the lion. But that means he needs to eat that food… or break his teeth.
‘I am very comfortable because, for the first time in many years, I do not have the pressure of defending my titles and the only person I have to impress is myself.
‘I will be able to enjoy myself because, for once, all the pressure will be on the opposite corner. Unbelievable pressure on a 27-year-old who has only 18 short fights as the experience on which to base his judgment.
‘I’m excited. I want to enjoy the atmosphere and my performance. If Anthony is not nervous, he had better be nervous. This underdog is hungry, too.’
If Joshua has nerves, he does not transmit them. Sensibly, though, he realises: ‘This is the biggest fight of my life. It is the one in which I must prove myself to the world.’