Fight trying to square the circle of politeness and ferocious violence
Joshua and Klitschko have been nice all week, but tomorrow forget the after-you-Claude stuff
The mutual respect is genuine, but after a while you wonder whether the good manners favour Wladimir Klitschko more than Anthony Joshua. Adoration is wrapping Joshua in a warm embrace. “My god, he’s beautiful,” a Sky television staffer said as all work at the broadcaster’s Isleworth HQ seemed to cease for the final press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Wembley showdown. Inside the quasi-airport terminal of ‘Sky Central’, people lined the railings two floors up and packed the foyer, capturing Joshua’s arrival in thousands of iPhone snaps and videos. Britain’s world heavyweight champion took a bow at the top of the stairs and completed the pre-fight version of a ring walk to the dais, where Michael Buffer, the American ring announcer, was introducing him.
Two “intelligent, respectful, elite athletes” is how Sky’s head of boxing, Adam Smith, framed the biggest fight in Britain since the war, certainly if attendance (90,000) and money (an expected £40million turnover) are the criteria. He called Klitschko “wonderfully personable”, which he is, unless you happen to be sharing a ring with him.
This world heavyweight title fight is attempting to square the circle of politeness and ferocious violence. It seeks an unusual brew of shared admiration and attempted destruction. When the first bell goes, you can forget the after-you-Claude stuff.
Joshua is on the cusp of becoming a global star, with room for expansion in America and Asia, just for starters. Klitschko is trying to redeem his career after losing to another British heavyweight, Tyson Fury, who lacks Joshua’s grasp of protocol. From those two propositions, only one storyline can survive the Saturday night fever. And however much Joshua was praised for his dignity and decency, compliments and sympathy would not protect him from the charge that he took this fight too early in his career.
“The respect will go out the window,” Joshua said at Wednesday night’s public workout. “It’s a fight, right?”
Correct. Against Dillian Whyte and Charles Martin in recent fights, Joshua has displayed the mean streak possessed by all great champions. In those bouts – the Martin victory brought him his heavyweight championship belt – the 27-year-old Joshua offered Klitschko no evidence of an excessively gentle nature.
Yet the steeliness in ‘Dr Steelhammer’ during this build-up is plainly designed to tell Joshua he has wandered out of his depth, 19 fights into his professional career. The younger Klitschko, now 41, is a veteran of 68 contests and is using age and experience to gnaw away at Joshua’s confidence. As hundreds of Sky staff listened rapt, Klitschko pointed to Joshua and said: “His age is exactly how long I have been in boxing – 27 years.” It was not self-deprecation; more, an