90,000 watch Joshua KO Klitschko
Anthony Joshua survived the first knockdown of his career, coming back to drop Wladimir Klitschko twice before stopping him in the 11th round Saturday night in London to retain his heavyweight titles and stake his claim as boxing’s next star.
Before a boisterous Wembley Stadium crowd of 90,000, Joshua and Klitschko traded huge punches in a spectacular fifth round and again in the sixth.
Joshua finally turned things around for good with a right uppercut early in the 11th round. He dropped the Ukrainian twice and was landing punches to his head on the ropes when referee David Fields stopped the bout at 2:25 of the round.
“When you go to the trenches, that’s when you find out who you really are,” the 27-year-old Briton said. “In this small little ring here, there’s nowhere to hide.”
Klitschko, 41, fell to 64-5 in a career that began in 1996 after he won Olympic gold in Atlanta. Joshua turned pro more than a decade and a half later, after taking gold in the 2012 Olympics in London.
Motor sports: Simon Pagenaud took advantage of a caution flag that caught the other leaders on pit road to win the Verizon IndyCar race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
The defending series champion grabbed the lead when Team Penske teammate Will Power pitted on the 137th lap, and the caution came out seconds later when Takuma Sato hit the wall in the fourth turn.
Ty Dillon passed Kyle Larson on a restart to win the NASCAR Xfinity race in overtime at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel stormed to the pole position for the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, ending a run of 18 poles for Mercedes. Tennis: Dominic Thiem beat top-ranked Andy Murray 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to the final against defending champion Rafael Nadal at the Barcelona Open. Nadal beat Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 6-4.
Maria Sharapova’s first tournament since her return after a doping suspension ended when she lost to Kristina Mladenovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the Porsche Grand Prix semifinals in Stuttgart, Germany.
No. 6 Stanford swept the Pac-12 crowns, following its regular-season women’s title with the inaugural tournament title after a 4-1 victory over No. 16 Cal in Ojai (Ventura County).
College rugby: Led by Dylan Audsley’s five conversions and one penalty for 13 points, No. 1 St. Mary’s defeated Arizona 43-7 in a USA D1A semifinal match in Moraga. The Gaels reached the finals for the fifth straight year and will play Life University, a 36-26 winner over BYU, in Moraga next Saturday.