Anthony Joshua still fighting for his place in boxing history
LONDON: World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is unbeaten impressive performance since a courageous and skilled 11thround stoppage of former champion Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley last year.
And it was a reminder too of Joshua’s remarkably rapid rise.
George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Klitschko were all well- regarded heavyweight champions yet, unlike Joshua, none held the title after so few fights, never mind with six defenses behind them.
No one, least of all Joshua himself, has yet elevated him to the status of ‘all-time great’ and nor can he be blamed if today’s heavyweight division lacks the allure of the one in the 1970s
George Chuvalo and Earnie Shavers contended for, but never won, the world title.
But it seems Joshua’s harshest critics are unlikely to be satisfied unless and until he beats World Boxing Council champion Deontay Wilder in a much-antic
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Talks between the Joshua and Wilder camps have stalled but this appears to be the kind of jousting common between rival promoters
Serena Williams says she is trying to “move on” from the meltdown that overshadowed her US Open final loss but remains perplexed at her coach’s admission he illegally signaled to her.
The 23- time Grand Slam champion lost the decider in straight sets to Japan’s Naomi Osaka after a fiery confrontation with chair umpire Carlos Ramos that she later blamed on sexism. Williams called Ramos a “thief” and a “liar” in a runn in g r o w - ally gets made.
Certainly there has been no credible suggestion that Joshua is with the Portuguese of- ally saw her docked
game.
In an interview with Australia’s Channel Ten, the American superstar said a male player would not have been treated the same way.
She said women could not get away with “even half of what a guy can do”.
“Right now we are not, as it’s proven, in that same position,” she said in an interview that aired late Sunday.
“But that’s neither here nor there. I’m just trying most of all to recover from that and move on.”
Williams said she felt “on the cusp of this amazing moment” before the 6- 2, 6- 4 loss to Osaka. ‘ducking’ Wilder.
“With my critics, I look at them like my friends as they look at the smallest things for a A win would have taken her to 24 Grand Slams, equaling Australian Margaret Court’s alltime record.
The dispute with Ramos began when Williams was issued a warning for coaching, something her coach sitting in the player’s box, Patrick Mouratoglou, admitted to doing.
Williams said she had not seen the Frenchman make a gesture and labeled his subsequent admission “a really confusing moment”.
“I asked him ‘ what are you talking about you were coaching?’,” she said.
“We don’t have signals, we’ve never had signals. He said he made a motion, and I said ‘ OK so you made a motion and now you’re telling people you were coaching me?’.
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would you say that?” me to be perfect,” said Joshua after coming through some testing early rounds to defeat Povetkin.