Joshua ready to unleash his prime power on veteran Klitschko
Joshua to unleash his prime power on veteran Klitschko
THE ink on the contract took longer to dry than the odd bead of sweat on the forehead. Anthony Joshua makes being world heavyweight champion look ridiculously easy. The 18th opponent of Joshua’s professional career went the way of all the others. Down and out in next to no time.
A Mexican-American called Eric Molina was still unscrambling his senses as the giant known as ‘AJ’ ambled to his dressing room and signed on the dotted line for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko.
Klitschko, who defended versions of the world title 23 times, had flown from Germany to Manchester to give his seal of approval to a mega-fight against Joshua in front of a 90,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium on April 29.
Happy Christmas, Wlad. The Impaler will have to turn back time if he is not to go the comatose way of all the others. At 41, Klitschko will be 14 years the elder by that April night. Joshua younger than springtime.
Having surveyed the enormity of his task from ringside in the Manchester Arena, Klitschko mused: ‘All my years of experience will help me against the best young champion in the world.’ Joshua, as he contemplated his first major challenge, said: ‘Of course age will play a big role, but I cannot rely on that alone. If I am to make this his last hurrah it will be because of the focus I bring to all my fights.
‘I always live right and train hard. Now I have four months and one camp to raise all that to another level.’
Klitschko, as he girds himself for the effort of trying to retrieve a couple of the belts lost to Tyson Fury in October 2015 in one of the ring’s great upsets, has been warned that Joshua is a Brit more dangerous.
To get close to financial parity, Klitschko has arranged for the vacant WBA title to be on the line as well as Joshua’s IBF championship. They will throw in the Ring Magazine and lesser-rated IBO belts for good measure.
Would victory over the man who ruled heavyweight boxing for almost a decade usher in the Age of Joshua? ‘Don’t know about that,’ said this admirable young man. ‘All I can do is keep going, keep grinding. Maybe one day, a long way away, we can look back and see it for what it is.’
Can he imagine himself fighting past 40, like Klitschko, or 50, like Bernard Hopkins, who has his farewell fight next Saturday?
Joshua chuckled and said: ‘Don’t know about that, either. It would depend on how young I feel and how my body holds up. What those two have done is amazing.’
And so is what Joshua has done already. Neither Klitschko nor Hopkins kicked off their careers with 18 straight KOs.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to make this Wembley occasion even bigger than the 80,000 who turned out for Carl Froch’s defeat of George Groves by securing permission for the capacity to be raised by another 10,000.
Not that the scale of the live audience bothers Joshua one bit. He boxed on the under card of Froch Groves and enjoyed the atmosphere but said: ‘Forty thousand, 80,000, 90,000 — it doesn’t matter to me. It’s what happens inside the ring that matters. Another fight.’
Joshua is so assured and aware of himself at this early stage of his development that it is scary. Nothing appears to be beyond him, yet he is untainted by ego or fame, still living at home with his mum while other boxing rising stars are hitting the bright lights harder than they punch their opponents.
Molina felt the full force of that focus. Having trained to land a onepunch knock-out — his only hope — he hardly threw a blow in anger before being decked in the second round and blown away in the third.
‘If it looked easy,’ said Joshua, ‘it’s because I made it look easy.’
When it comes to his longevity, Joshua knows that fights this abrupt help extend his legacy. And that too many fights like the one which preceded his, which he watched from his dressing room, could abbreviate his career.
Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora went from villains to heroes as they waged an epic heavyweight war. Having disgraced themselves at that furniture-chucking fracas during the build-up, they fought with primitive gallantry once they reached the ring. The 21,000 crowd booed their entrance but then roared with blood lust as the boxers set about each other as if they were chopping down trees and cheered them to a desperately close finish.
Both took dozens of punches any one of which could have stopped a tank in its tracks. First, Whyte looked about to go down, then Chisora. Astonishingly, neither fell.
They went toe-to-toe in the final round and the narrowest of split decisions went to Whyte, the British heavyweight champion, but to Chisora’s credit, also, they touched gloves as it was announced.
Out of hatred, through the fires of such beautiful savagery, came respect. ‘Unbelievable,’ said Joshua. ‘Any one of all those punches would have knocked out many a heavyweight in the world.’
It was an evening to relish and remember.
History in the making for Joshua. An epic of raw brutality. And the roster of British world champions increased to an astonishing 13 by Birmingham super-flyweight Kal Yafai’s masterful domination of Panama’s highly regarded Luis Concepcion. The rise of women’s boxing, via a second professional victory for Ireland’s former Olympic champion, Katie Taylor, meant that, in all, it was not bad for a rainy night in Manchester.
Happy New Year. Wembley here we come.