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‘The fight everyone wants to see is Joshua vs Fury’
‘The fight everyone wants to see is Joshua vs Fury’
Like a bolt of electricity, Kubrat Pulev was sent upside down, and Anthony Joshua strutted away without even bothering to check if his latest victim was getting up. It was fascinating: he knew it, we all knew it.
There is magic in Joshua’s right fist, but it had been too long since we saw it – it has been an 18-month spell of anguish, doubt, and eventually redemption, but boxing can be a simple sport at times and everything in between. it took a lot of effort. Blast the champion’s favorite weapon to make everything okay again.
Suddenly, the Tyson Fury debate rages in a different direction: Joshua has rediscovered his aggression, uncorked his first KO in two years, but the real clues as to what might concern Fury were hidden behind the stain of his fists. flying.
Pulev was lucky enough to be able to continue after this moment
The right hand that ended the fight was the classic Joshua
Pulev crashed to the ground three times in a ninth round loss
Joshua improved his record to 24-1 with 22 KOs
First; the end – who else in boxing knocks out a man like Joshua does?
Deontay Wilder’s club style of the one-hit variety is devastating in its own right, but there is nothing more exhilarating than Joshua in full flow, there is no one with a crueler instinct for knowing precisely when an opponent is on edge. of the collapse. .
Joshua was unlucky not to have crushed Pulev in the third round – the Bulgarian was admirably praised for his toughness, but during the fight’s most impressive round, he was caught in such a whirlwind of punishment that he spun 180 degrees, put his right hand on the rope and stood helpless with his back to Joshua and the referee.
It was a brief subconscious moment of submission from Pulev that only generated a permanent count from the referee – the fight continued and that may somehow explain why Joshua turned down the volume for the next three or four rounds. Yes, he was conserving energy, but he must also have felt that Pulev had stopped fighting long enough to justify the permanent intervention of the referee.
The KO was the classic Joshua of yesteryear, the young man who toured Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle with his mouth open when it wasn’t such a serious game. In the middle of the ring, one-two, jab and one right, bang.
There was arrogance and an assault on Joshua’s performance and personality for the past three days that has been absent since Andy Ruiz Jr. surprised him.
The Ruiz Jr saga forced Joshua to be introspective and disciplined but, with the IBF, WBA and WBO belts around his waist, he has not been in the mood all week to tolerate Pulev taking liberties.
On Thursday, Joshua stared at his challenger when Pulev yelled, “And the new one!”
On Friday Joshua could no longer contain his frustration and told Pulev during the melee weigh-in: “Try it tomorrow. Try your best tomorrow and we’ll see who is the last man standing.”
Saturday began with Joshua refusing to break eye contact with Pulev as he marched into the ring and walked on the top rope; then they fist-bumped with such intensity that it could have counted as a scoring hit on the judges’ scorecards.
The vengeful Joshua is worth rejoicing because as beautiful as his smile and charm are, it’s his nasty side that makes a future fight with Fury so compelling.
1:24 Anthony Joshua knocked out Kubrat Pulev to get closer to a dream fight against Tyson Fury.
4:05 Anthony Joshua says he wants to face whoever has the WBC belt and if it’s Tyson Fury then so be it!
3:44 Peter Fury: Tyson Fury ‘a different ball game’ for AJ
“I was caught between two styles,” was the in-ring critique of Dillian Whyte. He’s right, but is that a bad thing?
The marked improvement Joshua had been promising was delivered in the quieter moments of the fight, the long-forgotten segments but the ones that set him up to annoy Fury in a way critics didn’t expect until 11 p.m. Saturday. night.
In previous fights with Wladimir Klitschko and Ruiz Jr, Joshua had lost his composure and control when his opponent got off the mat and refused to give in early.
Against Pulev he simply stepped back and took a deep breath instead of recklessly moving forward and risking a beating in return.
“I want to see a disciplined performance, a little bit of the old AJ but a little bit of the new AJ too,” was the pre-fight lawsuit from Joby Clayton, whom Joshua had brought into his training team to teach posture, posture and calm under. Pressure.
“I still want him to not get hit. I want him to be the AJ that is so exciting and devastating,” Clayton continued, and that’s what we finally got.
Hours after midnight, Joshua was still engrossed backstage by the advice of Floyd Mayweather, a surprise ring assistant and owner of the highest IQ inside a boxing ring of his generation.
Mayweather’s otherworldly brilliance meant that, in 50 fights, he never had to recover from a setback, but, in his own way, he was forced to add brains to his strength the way Joshua is doing now.
It was the second legend in four days that Joshua absorbed the knowledge like a sponge: Last Wednesday he spoke with his rival and mentor Klitschko, who was previously the only man to beat Pulev.
It’s a reminder that – an Olympic gold medalist and 10 world heavyweight championship fights in a career that has made him a megastar – Joshua has never been more open to feedback from those who have tamed this fierce game. .
Mayweather poses with Joshua’s belts
Joshua received valuable advice from Mayweather
Memories of how Fury so convincingly destroyed Wilder are still fresh, and for the harshest critics so are memories of Joshua’s breakup against Ruiz Jr, but now there is genuine reason to believe that it has evolved. since that catastrophe in New York.
Joshua and Fury in the ring together is a fantasy thing: he will push and pull the British public one way and then the other like no fight in history, create tribal fan bases before everyone’s predictions change when the heavyweights change. Make eye contact for the first time. (what a chilling moment it will be).
“I’ll knock him out in three rounds,” Fury asserted, but Saturday night and the days of reflection afterward belong to Joshua, a champion of courage who has left a painful chapter in his career behind and transformed into the most intimidating version of same that has ever existed.
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