London - The ink on the contract took longer to dry than the odd bead of sweat on the forehead. Anthony Joshua makes being world heavyweight champion look ridiculously easy.
The 18th opponent of Joshua’s professional career went the way of all the others: down and out in next to no time.A Mexican-American called Eric Molina was still unscrambling his senses as the giant known as ‘AJ’ ambled to his dressing room and signed on the dotted line for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko.
Klitschko, who defended versions of the world title 23 times, had flown from Germany to Manchester to give his seal of approval to a mega-fight against Joshua in front of what could be a 90 000 crowd at Wembley Stadium on April 29.
Happy Christmas, Wlad. The Impaler will have to turn back time if he is not to go the comatose way of all the others. At 41, Klitschko will be 14 years the elder by that April night, Joshua younger than springtime.
Having surveyed the size of his task from ringside in the Manchester Arena, Klitschko mused: ‘All my years of experience will help me against the best young champion in the world.’Joshua, as he contemplated his first major challenge, said: ‘Of course age will play a big role. But I cannot rely on that alone. If I am to make this his last hurrah, it will be because of the focus I bring to all my fights.
Britain's IBF Heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, left, and Wladimir Klitschko stand on the ring after it was announced the two men will fight one another in 2017. Photo: Dave Thompson/AP
‘I always live right and train hard. Now I have four months and one camp to raise all that to another level.’ Klitschko, as he girds himself for the effort of trying to retrieve a couple of the belts lost to Tyson Fury in October 2015 in one of the ring’s great upsets, has been warned that Joshua is a Brit more dangerous.
To get close to financial parity, Klitschko has arranged for the vacant WBA title to be on the line as well as Joshua’s IBF championship. They will throw in the Ring Magazine and lesser-rated IBO belts for good measure.Would victory over the man who ruled heavyweight boxing for almost a decade usher in the Age of Joshua? ‘Don’t know about that,’ said this admirable young man.
‘All I can do is keep going, keep grinding. Maybe one day, a long way away, we can look back and see it for what it is.’Can he imagine himself fighting past 40, like Klitschko, or 50, like Bernard Hopkins who has his farewell fight next Saturday? Joshua chuckled and said: ‘Don’t know about that, either. It would depend on how young I feel and how my body holds up.
What those two have done is amazing.’ And so is what Joshua has done already. Neither Klitschko nor Hopkins kicked off their career with 18 straight KOs.Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to make this Wembley occasion even bigger than the 80,000 who turned out for Carl Froch’s defeat of George Groves by securing permission for the capacity to be raised by 10 000.
He is asking the London Mayor for that sanction and said: ‘Sadiq Khan talks about wanting the biggest fights in London and this is his chance to help that happen.’ Not that the scale of the live audience bothers Joshua one bit.
He boxed on the undercard of Froch-Groves and enjoyed the atmosphere but said: ‘Forty thousand, 80,000, 90,000 — it doesn’t matter to me. It’s what happens inside the ring that matters. Another fight.’ Joshua is so assured and aware of himself at this early stage of his development that it is scary.
'Nothing appears to be beyond him, yet he is untainted by ego or fame, still living at home with his mum while other boxing rising stars are hitting the bright lights harder than they punch their opponents.Molina felt the full force of that focus. Having trained to land a one-punch knockout — his only hope — he hardly threw a blow in anger before being decked in the second round and blown away in the third.‘If it looked easy,’ said Joshua, ‘it’s because I made it look easy.’
When it comes to his longevity, Joshua knows fights this abrupt help extend his legacy. And that too many fights like the one which preceded his, which he watched from his dressing room, could abbreviate his career.Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora went from villains to heroes as they waged an epic heavyweight war.
Having disgraced themselves at that furniture-chucking fracas in the build-up, they fought with primitive gallantry once they reached the ring. The 21,000 crowd booed their entrance but then roared with blood lust as the boxers set about each other as if they were chopping down trees and cheered them to a desperately close finish.Both took dozens of punches, any one of which could have stopped a tank in its tracks. First, Whyte looked about to go down, then Chisora.
Astonishingly, neither fell. Both gritted their teeth in agony and distress the longer the fight went on.At times, after ferocious assaults, they stood back, arms down, glaring at each other as they struggled for breath. Yet somehow they went toe to toe in the final round which each knew was likely to resolve their deep, bitter enmity.
The narrowest of split decisions went to Whyte, the British heavyweight champion, but to Chisora’s credit they touched gloves as it was announced.Out of hatred, through the fires of such beautiful savagery, came respect. ‘Unbelievable,’ said Joshua. ‘Any one of all those punches would have knocked out many a heavyweight in the world.’ It was an evening to relish and remember.
History in the making for Joshua. A mind-boggling epic of raw brutality. And the roster of British world champions increased to an astonishing 13 by Birmingham super-flyweight Kal Yaifi’s masterful domination of Panama’s highly regarded Luis Conception.
The rise of women’s boxing, via a second professional victory for Ireland’s former Olympic champion Katie Taylor, meant that, in all, it was not bad for a rainy night in Manchester.
Happy New Year.
Wembley here we come.