Pressure now on Wilder and Fury to match this spectacle

At least one of Britain’s Russia problems has been solved. After an edgy first half to this fight, Anthony Joshua removed Alexander Povetkin with a spectacular flurry that soothed anxieties about the direction of his career.

Povetkin ended up with his head between the ropes during a brutal onslaught and Joshua headed safely to his next engagement on April 13 – possibly against the winner of the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury fight on Dec 1. Even if boxing politics delay that outcome, Joshua has come through a serious test. After 1min 59sec of round seven, Joshua stifled Povetkin’s ambitious approach of throwing hooks and uppercuts from a low position. Wobbled in the first round by one such blow, Britain’s champion imposed his superior speed and power on an opponent more assertive than Carlos Takam or Joseph Parker had been.

Maybe now people will understand how unrealistic it was after the epic Wladimir Klitschko fight here to expect Joshua to go steaming through every good fighter in the division. At this stage, plenty pose a threat. Povetkin brought pure Russian aggression to the ring. “I am the hunted,” Joshua said before the first bell, and Povetkin proved him right.

“I’ve proved I can do rounds, proved I can dig in – now I want to show I can go in and dismantle an opponent,” Joshua also said. Now he has proved he can deal with a smaller, venomous adversary. In his 22nd contest, he was 1-8 to prevail, but the odds seemed less heavily in his favour until that seventh-round barrage. Povetkin, 39, was ranked No3 in the world by Ring Magazine and Klitschko was the only fighter to have beaten him. To see him waved away by the referee after narrowly surviving the first count of 10 has only enhanced Joshua’s record.

The backdrop to this contest was an obsession with rushing Joshua, 28, into a heavyweight unification bout with America’s WBC champion, Wilder, whose fight with Fury was confirmed on the day of this compelling clash.

The timing of the announcement was a clear attempt to suggest that Joshua versus Povetkin was a sideshow compared to Wilder versus Fury, the so-called “linear champion,” in America. Wilder called the Fury fight: “The two best heavyweights competing against each other, the best fighting the best, giving the people what they want.”

The last bit may be true, but to call Wilder-Fury “the best against the best” was a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act, because Joshua arrived at Wembley on a rainy September night in possession of four heavyweight belts – including three of the big four: the IBF, WBA and WBO.

Thankfully people care less these days about this alphabet soup. The point is that Joshua did not surrender his position in the division to Fury simply by failing to agree a fight with Wilder. But he did place it on the line against Povetkin, who returned two positive dope tests in 2016 and was a dangerous puncher.

These 80,000 sell-outs have become a blessing and a burden for Joshua. The money and excitement they generate are offset by the raising of public expectation. Hence Joshua’s comment before this fight: “I feel loads of pressure. Tons of pressure. That’s the reality of it, even though I present myself as cool, calm and collected. The pressure has definitely grown but I still feel like I have everything to gain.”

And everything to lose. Yet Joshua came through it, despite needing time to find his range with the jab, and the pressure now is on Wilder and Fury to match this level of destruction.

These 80,000 sellouts have become both a blessing and a burden for Joshua