Anthony Joshua just became a superstar with his tough baptism by fire heavyweight Championship bout against experienced veteran and future hall of famer Wladimir Klitschko.
Two Olympic Gold medalists Joshua and Klitschko squared off the old guard versus the new, it was a fight heavily hyped up for months and in front of a sell out 90,000 crowd at the Wembley Stadium, in London England. Would the Joshua vs. Klitschko bout live up to the build up? The answer is YES!
What a fight, the heavyweight division has just birthed a new star. The passing of the torch is complete, Joshua started off patient against Klitschko, the first few rounds were feel out rounds, with the older Klitschko hopping on his feet looking in supreme cardio condition, while Joshua seemed a bit flat footed and nervous.
Joshua tasted first blood in round five with a vicious flurry on Klitschko dropping him and hurting him, after beating the count Wlad stood back up on shaky legs with a bad cut on his eye, and survived the round.
In the following round AJ looked like he punched himself out, Klitschko hurt and knocked down Joshua with his signature right hand. I thought it was the beginning of the end for AJ, he was too young, too inexperienced not ready for the lights and I was already visualizing the headlines would be Wladimir Klitschko turns back the clock with a knockout of Joshua, but I was wrong.
After getting dropped in round six Joshua composed himself and showed heart, he paced himself and recovered, there was ebb and flow with Wladimir looking to coast to a victory by boxing and moving. Toward the later rounds Joshua regained his stamina and confidence, in the 11th round he became a beast dropping the former unified champion multiple times with the referee finally stepping in and waving it off.
Anthony Joshua improved his record to 19 and 0 with all wins by KO and captured the vacant WBA title while retaining his IBF belt. The future is looking bright for the new heavyweight king, in the post fight interview he called out unbeaten Tyson Fury to a British superfight, but many people including myself would love to see Anthony Joshua fight unbeaten American power punching WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
