As it happened
Anthony Joshua stopped Alexander Povetkin in seven rounds to defend his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles after a bruising battle.
So Anthony Joshua has made it 22 fights undefeated and and reaffirmed his status as the world’s leading heavyweight. It wasn’t easy, some might even say he made hard work of it, but Povetkin was tough and talented and took some stopping. When Joshua did stop him, it was brutally clean and clinical. The champion marches on.
Anthony Joshua knocks out Alexander Povetkin to retain world titles
Was Joshua hampered by being unwell tonight? Amid all the euphoria about the emphatic finish, it has to be said that Povetkin seriously ruffled the champion. Joshua looked hurt and even weak at times during the opening rounds, but after the fight he offered TalkSport a reason why that might have been …
"I have always said to myself, Povetkin has been a gold medallist, he fought for the world title when I turned pro and he has stayed at the top of his game since then. You have to give him credit. If that was in tennis, football, basketball you’d say this was a serious challenger. We’re against serious competitors for this championship belt. I’ve got to keep my feet firmly on the ground. They’re not only going to be great fights but very tough. I’ve suffered with a flu. This camp has been difficult. I knew I just had to stay in there”
As predicted, Povetkin was always going to be dangerous but Joshua grew in confidence and finished in style. Heavyweight boxing is about knockouts and he was brutal in delivering it.
Joshua had emerged into the stadium in that white robe, aping Muhammad Ali, looking so relaxed. He raised a white-gloved hand to friends and family sitting ringside, shadowboxed his way to the ring on a hydraulic lift, the biggest commercial commodity in the sport. The big roar went up. Spumes of fire exploded around him but this is now a familiar walk, soundtracked to the chant of ‘O, Anthon-eeee Joshu-ua’.
It was a cagey start as they felt each other out, a phoney war until Povetkin exploded with a three-punch combination which clearly buckled the Briton. It felt a little like Russian roulette at times. There was more animated talk in the corner between rounds than we have ever witnessed from trainer Rob McCracken. Joshua needed it. He needed acuity here.
In the fourth, a brilliant uppercut from Joshua bust the eyelid above Povetkin’s left eye, and clearly it lifted the defending champion. As the fight played out through the fifth and sixth rounds, Povetkin was made to miss more, and when shots did land, the champion simply nodded and waved his rival in. His confidence was growing, and as the older man by 11 years began to tire, Joshua finished emphatically.
When the referee Steve Gray stepped in between them to rescue Povetkin, after the sensational finish, the 80,000 crowd here erupted. Such relief. Joshua had been 4-2 down on this card.
There is so much at stake every time he fights. Millions watched at home in the UK and in the United States, where the Briton with the Adonis-like physique was making his first appearance on the streaming network DAZN in the US, and four other territories, the platform a part of the network owned by British billionaire Sir Len Blavatnik.
Joshua earned £20 million for his night’s work – the Russian heads back east with £6m in his bank account. Joshua knew that he had to be at his best against the shorter, powerful, tank-like build of the man known as ‘the White Lion’, who wanted to get in close, on to Joshua’s chest, and explode with his dangerous arcing left hooks, and an overhand right which had put 70 per cent of his previous opponents to sleep.
In Povetkin, the developing British fighter met a fellow Olympic gold medallist, a boxer with Russian state backing who had admitted leading up to the fight that this was his “last chance at heavyweight glory” at the age of 39, having been defeated just once in a 13-year career of 35 fights, that solitary imperfection to the Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko.
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