Anthony Joshua thrilled on his return to Wembley, but he needs a big name or these events will lose some of their status
MUCH more of this and Anthony Joshua might start realising exactly how good he is.
Britain’s world heavyweight champion — so humble, so fraught and so downbeat in the build-up to this showdown — demolished Russian challenger Alexander Povetkin with a brutal seventh-round stoppage.
Joshua was being given one of the toughest challenges of his life by the raging bull from the East, standing no better than neck-and-neck by the end of the sixth.
And that after he had sustained a broken nose at the end of the first round.
Yet, despite having been troubled several times by Povetkin, Joshua handed the Russian the first stoppage of his career with a barrage of blows to end the contest a minute before the end of the seventh.
Sure, other Russian visitors have done more damage on their recent travels.
But Povetkin was tough. Povetkin was smart. Povetkin was dangerous.
And yet Joshua ensured that the 39-year-old ended up horizontal to retain his IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
Now he can watch on when WBC champ Deontay Wilder and ‘lineal champ’ Tyson Fury slug it out on December 1, safe in the knowledge that he remains the main man in this division.
His record is 22-0 and this finish was almost as good as Wladimir Klitschko’s dismantling on his previous Wembley outing.
Not even the heavyweight champion of the world can control the weather but earlier in the evening it had felt as though a downpour, and the subsequent army of ringside poncho-wearers, was emblematic of a dampening down of AJ-mania.
Lest we forget, though, that four major stadium shows in the space of 17 months — three of them sold out before this — is a phenomenal achievement, unprecedented in British boxing history.
But until Joshua gets it on with Wilder or even Fury these shows are losing a little of their must-see status. Povetkin may have been touted as a dangerous adversary but he was hardly a major box-office draw.
Despite being a convicted drug cheat from a politically hostile nation, Povetkin hadn’t even hammed it up as a pantomime villain in the fight-week build-up.
Russia’s 2004 Olympic champion is a well-mannered man. Until he dons a pair of gloves and enters a boxing ring, that is.
On his previous visit to Britain, he inflicted a bone-chilling knockout of David Price — the Liverpudlian who was kicked out of the fight game’s last-chance saloon by losing to another Russian, Sergey Kuzmin, here on Saturday night.
For Joshua, this was a first return to Wembley since his thrilling victory over Wladimir Klitschko in April 2017 — quite possibly the greatest sporting night since the new national stadium opened in 2007.
That was the night which cemented his place in the nation’s hearts as well as confirming him as the man to beat in the heavyweight division.
Since then the Millennium Stadium fights against a durable Carlos Takam and the previously-undefeated Joseph Parker have been less spectacular but had answered any doubts about stamina and his craftsmanship. Yet after a unification bout with Wilder failed to come into fruition and Fury stepped into that breach there had been a shift away from the Watford man’s all-powerful status.
Joshua’s public pronouncements during fight week had hardly been upbeat.
He was tired, he’d been through the most gruelling training camp of his career and, he’s candidly admitted, he feared failure and dreaded losing it all.
The undercard had hardly been an A-list affair but something of the old buzz was back by the stated time for Joshua’s ring walk. Silver-fox Michael Buffer had taken to the ring in his tinfoil tuxedo and led the audience into a chorus of the universal anthem of everything, Sweet Caroline.
Povetkin was roundly booed on his way to the ring. And then came Joshua — robed in silver, strutting past bright orange explosions as casually as most blokes take their dogs for a walk.
Joshua had weighed in almost two stones heavier than Povetkin, a smaller heavyweight, always nimble on his feet.
And after the Brit had landed the first couple of telling blows, Povetkin rocked him with an uppercut, followed with a big right to the body just before the bell at the end of the first. Joshua was bleeding heavily from the nose early in the second with Povetkin launching telling attacks on the champion.
But Joshua took a little sting out of the challenger in he third, enjoying some success with a couple of penetrative jabs.
And early in the fourth he cut Povetkin above his left eye. As the claret poured, Joshua landed a mighty left hook.
Joshua produced his best work so far at the start of the sixth — a left hook, followed by a right uppercut which hurt Povetkin and seemed to open the door to a finish.
Yet the Russian soon responded with some frenzied attacking of his own, leaving Joshua clinging on.
Then came the seventh and the conclusive proof that this is a fighter capable of combining supreme streetwise intelligence with stunning brute force.
Joshua nailed his challenger with a big right. A few seconds later, the Russian was caught by a brutal left hook, then floored by a straight right.
He should never have been allowed to continue but was allowed to take two more brutal head shots before his legs buckled and ref Steve Gray called it a night.
