MARTIN SAMUEL’S VERDICT
He’s on a par with Sir Stanley, Moore and Bowie He delivered artistry, power and bravery
Moving through Wembley’s corridors, Anthony Joshua would have seen the photographs of the British icons lining the walls. Figures on first name, or pet name, terms with the nation. Bobby with his World Cup; the artist formerly known as gazza; Sir Stanley the wing wizard; Bowie; Mick and the Stones.
This morning, Joshua — AJ, as he is increasingly known — can stand beside them all. This was the greatest night of boxing in the stadium’s history, surely the greatest performance by a British heavyweight on home soil and one of the greatest title fights of any era. it is a fight that will grow in the legend, and the retelling, the first-hand accounts, the i-was-there.
There were 90,000 in Wembley Stadium but that number will continue to increase, day by day. Just like every old punk claims to have seen the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, so every fight fan will want their piece of Anthony Joshua’s coming of age.
Boxing has grown relaxed with its gargoyles and ogres, the growth in unpleasant trash talk, the ever more transparent stunts. Yet here was a Wembley sell-out and the biggest pay-per-view take-up in British boxing, promoted on nothing more than the quality of the fight and the fighters.
‘i don’t need to flip tables and punch people in press conferences to show i’m a good fighter and dedicated and can dig deep when i have to,’ said Joshua, and he is loved for that, too. He is 19 professional fights old and could already, quite legitimately, be knighted for services to boxing just on what he has done for the sport with a single fight. not that he should; there is plenty of time for pageantry.
For while this is a life-changing event for Joshua — now 1-11 to win Sports Personality of the Year in 2017 — it is equally a game-changing event for his sport.
Seeing Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko deliver a contest so magnificent, and yet so thoroughly noble and respectfully conducted throughout, was a reminder of the pretenders we had previously entertained, and the compromises we have made.
Sport needs bad guys for its light and shade, true, and Joshua got a huge cheer of anticipatory bloodlust when calling out Tyson Fury in the ring afterwards — but there has been too much shade of late and precious little light. There has been some ordinary fighting, too.
What happened at Wembley elevated the sport to a level rarely seen in the heavyweight division of late. The movement, the artistry, the power, the ferocity, the bravery, even the narrative arc as advantage shifted from one fighter to the other, this was boxing delivering at its very essence, at a time when the tanks of mixed martial arts are parked on its lawn.
Every year, some sage pronounces that boxing is dead and the sport responds by breaking PPv records or filling Wembley Stadium but, even so, Joshua is a godsend. Erudite, smart, skilled and an entertainer.
indeed, the only caveat placed on him being this country’s most bankable sports star for the next decade is the fact that an entertaining boxer runs the same risk of calamity as a brave politician, and often enjoys a similar lifespan. How many 11-round tear-ups can a man survive in the heavyweight division, before one punch changes his destiny?
Joshua answered doubts about his chin against Klitschko, and his heart and stamina too, but that does not make him invulnerable. Even if the division is not at its strongest now, the rumours that he was rocked in a sparring session by 19-year-old Daniel Dubois from greenwich suggest he may not always have it his own way.
‘There is no one with Wladimir’s experience,’ said Joshua, ‘ but there are people coming up in the game who are very talented as well, people i can definitely mingle with. it was good to compete with Wladimir, he’s a veteran, he can challenge me in different ways. But the other guys will be raw and hungry, like me — two hungry fighters coming together. There are some good nights coming in the heavyweight division.’
Yet what a promoter or a champion calls a good night differs greatly from what the paying customer wishes to see. Sebastian Coe said it was only possible to race three or four marathons in a career. Running them, he argued, was different. it is the same in boxing. Lennox Lewis was among the greatest champions, but jabbed opponents to death. He was smart, like Floyd Mayweather, did not believe in risk and only his 2003 six-round epic against vitaly Klitschko is recalled for its brutality. Most title fights are a marathon run; Joshua v Klitschko was a marathon race.
A rematch remains the favourite next move, perhaps at Wembley again or more likely the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Beyond that, promoter Eddie Hearn has an eye on Joshua’s global reach. not just returning to family roots in Africa — the nigerian flag is held, along with the Union Jack, to greet Joshua’s entry to the ring — but new markets in China and the Middle East.
The mandatory challenger for the iBF belt is Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria who was taken 12 rounds by Dereck Chisora last year, and suffered three knockdowns before being rendered unconscious by a left hook in round five of a bout with Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. Pulev is 35 and is not what might be termed a sexy opponent. ‘So maybe that is one we take on the road,’ said Hearn, nobly. one for the sheiks, perhaps.
Yet if Joshua now has to manage his status and his career a little wisely, he can hardly be blamed. As events proved, he was not taking on a sure thing in 41-year-old Wladimir. There was plenty at stake, plenty that could have gone wrong against such an experienced and determined competitor.
‘You’ve got to respect him for taking these fights,’ Hearn added. ‘i’d love to tell you it’s me being brave. it’s not, it’s him. He wanted to test himself. it was the ultimate gamble, but the ultimate reward.
‘So he’s learning his trade under this kind of pressure. other people are having 35, 36 fights — he’s still a rookie going in with Klitschko. And he made mistakes but he showed tremendous heart and he has a great chin. i wondered if he was going to get up from that knockdown in the sixth. But he did. He got hit with
some huge shots, in the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th — one left hook was just so big. But he rode that, and in his 19th professional fight he’s beat Klitschko to unify.
‘And there are so many more improvements to make from here. I can’t tell you his expectations and what he wants to achieve.’
If anything explains the excitement around Joshua it is this relative inexperience. Most of the photographs on the Wembley walls show performers at the summit. More than half a century on, England have never repeated the 1966 World Cup win.
A month after winning the FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal, Paul Gascoigne sustained the injury that would change his career. Stanley Matthews was 38 when Blackpool won the 1953 FA Cup final. Jagger looks 30 years past that, fronting the Stones on stage.
Joshua has completed phase two of what Hearn described as a four-phase programme. He was talking of this landmark night for British boxing as a learning experience.
‘The memories disappear, but the learning doesn’t,’ Joshua said. ‘What Wladimir Klitschko has learned over a career is what has made him a powerful man and allowed him to come back into this fight. That is what I take from this. What I learned is more important than anything else. You can have all the skill and technical ability but there are times when you just have to show character.
‘I don’t want to be in those kinds of fights, but I’m willing to do whatever I need to come out on top and not crumble. Maybe against anyone else in the division he might have won.
‘This is what I’m saying: I’ll fight. There’s no problem. I’m not shy. I’ll knock out anyone. I’m not the best at everything, but what I do, I give everything.’
The iconic Britons on the walls looked down benignly. They will have recognised those words, as they would recognise one of their own.