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The world came knocking on Anthony Joshua’s door as hard as he had pounded Wladimir Klitschko at the thunderous climax to their epic battle the night before. Britain’s new global superstar was in no rush to answer, even though America in all its riches was calling.

US cable network giant Showtime want to put him on a plane to New York and into the chat-show TV studios. After the mother of all heavyweight fights in this country, the hard sell across the Atlantic.

A golden dawn was breaking for Joshua yesterday morning but it was well into the afternoon before he felt sufficiently recovered from his Saturday night heroics to greet his suitors.

Fights of this magnitude take a more debilitating toll than the city suits who want to make him, and themselves, a fortune can begin to understand.

The reality for the young man was not the prolonged celebration in the ring with his relatives and friends which followed the raising of his hand as the unified heavyweight champion of the world.

The punishing extent of Joshua’s exertions was to be seen in the exhaustion which enveloped him in the first moments following the referee’s cessation of hostilities in the 11th round of unarmed combat at its most extreme.

There was no primeval victory scream. Not even a raising of the arms in triumph. he just fell limply back into the comforting embrace of his corner men.

The brutal truth was not evident in his articulate salutations to all present, the exultant 90,000 crowd and the gallantry of his 41-year- old opponent included. That speech and the high fives which followed were fuelled by the rush of adrenalin.

The brutal truth was writ large on his swollen, near-gargoyle features at thehe press conference long after midnight in the now- darkened stadium. Joshua sat down heavily, struggled to locate the microphone, peered through half- closed eyes and spoke in a woolly fashion through bruised lips.

had he, not Klitschko, been the elder in this battle of the ages, we might have been detecting signs of punch-drunkenness.

Not in Joshua’s case. At just 27 and now with 19 straight knockouts to launch his career towards the stratosphere, he is too young, too fresh, too bright for that. Rather, this was a fighting man who had given every last ounce of his being in that squared ring of pain and glory.

‘This is what true champions do,’ he whispered.

ONlY once did we hear that laugh which is the default mechanism of Joshua’s happy daily life. That was when he recalled telling Klitschko ‘I’ll get you in the next round’ as he staggered back to his corner after taking his bleary, near-terminal trip to the canvas in the sixth.

how the fates tortured and toyed with the minds of these gladiators, taking each in turn to the brink of victory and the precipice of defeat before they came to the final act of a drama of such magnitude that it has restored boxing to a pinnacle of public fascination, reviving the hallowed heavyweight division in the process.

For these priceless gifts all lovers of sport at its most demanding, most visceral, most brilliant, most pressurised, most courageous, most violent, most electrifying and least predictable should give thanks to these blood brothers born half a generation apart.

Klitschko, a 41-year-old veteran of 68 wars and more than a decade as the predominant world champion, was first to be bludgeoned to the floor. The fifth round was barelyb l underd way whenh a flurryfl of f punches from Joshua forced him to his knees. Astonishingly, he rose to vent his rage at himself by clubbing his young adversary into such distress on the ropes that American referee David Fields was close to intervening in Klitschko’s favour as the bell rang.

Joshua was still the more wounded of the two as they came out for the sixth and Klitschko sent him crashing down on to the seat of his pants with a murderous right hook. Klitschko said: ‘I never thought he would get up.’

Somehow he did and the older man was so startled that he neglected to finish him off.

how he would come to regret that, even though it took Joshua so l long t to f fullyll revivei th thatt Klitschko gained expert control of the ensuing rounds and had taken over the lead on my card and that of one of the judges as they came to the fateful 11th.

how the other two officials still had Joshua well ahead is a scandal requiring examination at a later date. But for the moment the only thing that counts is AJ’s comeback from the walking dead.

The popular assumption had been that Joshua had to win early or Klitschko would prevail late.

So it seemed. Fatigue was dragging at Joshua’s arms and legs. All he had left was to go for broke. he summoned up the will to do so and cashed in big time.

One punch can change every- thingthi ini heavyweighth i ht boxing.b i TheTh one that mattered here was a right uppercut dredged from the kneelow depths of Joshua’s struggle for survival. It was a hail Mary which found its target.

Klitschko’s head snapped back before he subsided under the blows that followed.

Buckled but as yet unbowed, he rose only to meander into a left hook which sent him not only down but into a fog which was still clouding his senses when he somehow regained the perpendicular again, rendering him indefensible against Joshua’s final barrage.

Peculiarly, both emerged as winners. Klitschko, for so long, has been the victim of unjust accusations of being boring levelled by critics unable to admire the technical excellence of his boxing. Now, at what may be the last, he has found redemption from that and his insipid loss of all his world titles to Tyson Fury.

The passing of the torch to a fine young englishman was accomplished as much with dignity and grace as by brute force.

Well, at least for the moment. There is a rematch in the contract. But for the moment Master Joshua is the king of all he surveys, the hottest property in sport, still refreshingly unspoiled and, yes, a billionaire in the making.

heady stuff for the good guy which he rightly attests himself to be. Now he will have to learn the wearing of his worldly fame.

Joshua has always shied away from attending the BBC Sports Personality of the Year gala. Acceptance of this year’s invitation is likely to be compulsory. After all, he has just super-starred in what will be the greatest event of 2017.