WORLD IN HIS HANDS
Joshua desperate to face US rival and become undisputed champion
WHAT more have I go to do? That plaintive question whispered through the depths of the Principality Stadium in the small dark hours of Easter Sunday morning.
The 80,000 congregation in that sporting cathedral had evaporated into the boozy Cardiff night. They know the answer to AJ’s lament. Boxing knows the answer. The wider world knows the answer. We all know the answer.
Fight Deontay Wilder. Beat Deontay Wilder. Silence America. Become the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis. The second outright ruler of the ring’s marquee division since Mike Tyson.
Anthony Joshua had just beaten another pretender to his throne, New Zealand’s game but outgunned Joseph Parker, to extend his domination over the heavy brigade to four of the five alpha-belts.
WBA, IBF, IBO, now WBO. Four down and only the WBC to go.
What more does our reform boy from the streets have to do? He knows, too.
Joshua said: ‘I’m going with my team to America to scout the landscape. To see if Wilder really wants it. To do the negotiations behind closed doors instead of on social media. To get serious.’
There are voices in his ear counselling caution, arguing for at least one more fight before jackpot night. He knows the answer to that, too: ‘Sooner rather than later.’
The heat is on and he says: ‘Of course I feel the pressure. I’ve filled football stadiums three times in 11 months and unified four of the world titles. But these days you have to be perfect. Win every fight. It seems no athlete is allowed one mistake now.’
It was hardly a mistake to be taken the 12-round distance for the first time in his unbeaten 21-fight career.
Yet eyebrows were raised because he failed to flatten a rival champion who has never been knocked off his feet, even though he won by a wide unanimous decision. ‘I should be able to sit back a bit and call myself the man,’ Joshua mused. ‘Appears not. I’m still a work in progress, developing my boxing technique... but the next show always has to be bigger than the last. The next one will be, so long as we can come to a sensible deal with Wilder.’
Easier said than done. Wilder can be anything but sensible at times. He fanned the flames of controversy when he talked about looking to kill a man in the ring, ‘wanting a body on my record’.
The 28-year-old Joshua has grown out of a hard place but even he was shocked.
‘Boxing is a dangerous sport and people can get killed in the ring but I don’t want a death on my record,’ he said. ‘Be careful when you say things like that because sometimes they actually happen.’
Joshua kneels in his corner before a fight. He says: ‘I say a little prayer for myself and that my opponent will be safe. I shake hands afterwards. Families worry.
‘It’s not nice for a mother to see her boy being hit. So I made a point of going to see Joseph’s mother after the fight to tell her that her son did well.
‘I know I hurt Joseph a few times and cut his eye. I wanted to make sure she was all right.’
We had all seen the alarming prelude to the big fight, in which Liverpool heavyweight David Price was brutally knocked out by Alexander Povetkin, the Russian who is now a leading contender for one of Joshua’s titles.
Maturity sits well on Joshua. Now he is keen to develop the advanced skills of boxing, saying: ‘No real world heavyweight champion has been only a puncher. Even Mike Tyson was a skilled boxer.’
While the fans wanted blood, Joshua was pleased with how he controlled the 12 rounds against Parker with his ramrod left jab.
Team Parker complained that the Italian referee kept separating them so repeatedly that their smaller champion was denied the chance of going to work on the inside.
Their claim that Giuseppe Quartarone could not speak English was erroneous but his methods did hamper Parker.
Nevertheless, the Kiwi was quick to congratulate Joshua on being ‘the better and bigger man who deserved to win the fight’.
The decision was unanimous, by two scores of 118-110 and one of 119-109. My card was more sympathetic to the visitor at 117-111.
Wilder, who deliberately stayed away from Cardiff but watched on television in America, had another rush of blood when he tweeted: ‘Robbery.’ This is where the harder part comes for Joshua.
Promoter Eddie Hearn is leaning towards a more modest midsummer fight, perhaps against Povetkin or another eastern European contender Kubrat Pulev, at the O2, saying: ‘Three big stadium fights in quick succession are a hell of a job for our team. And I don’t think Wilder and his team really want the fight yet.’
Joshua demurs: ‘I believe Deontay wants it. No problem for me fighting him, only in getting the right deal made. I would prefer Wembley Stadium but if he can come up with a better deal for Las Vegas, that’s OK also.’ Wilder insists: ‘I’m ready.’
Let us hope so. Anything less would bring the first hint of an anti-climax to Joshua’s lightning rise to heavyweight supremacy.
Joshua tells Wilder: ‘Whenever, I will knock you spark out.’
Maybe a case of easier done in the ring than said over the negotiating table.