By Scott Gilfoid: A slow and lethargic IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) had to get up off the deck from a 6th round knockdown to come back and defeat 41-year-old former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) by an 11th round knockout on Saturday night in front of 90,000 boxing fans at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Joshua was ahead by the judges’ scores 96-93, 95-93 and Wladimir leading 95-93 at the time of the stoppage.
Joshua knocked Wladimir down 3 times in the fight in dropping him in rounds 5 and twice more in round 11. Joshua hurt Wladimir at the start of round 11 with a right hand to the chin. Joshua then poured it on and dropped Wladimir twice. Wladimir got up both times. Joshua continued to nail Wladimir with power shots until the referee David Fields halted the fight with Wladimir on his feet. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:25 of round 11.
Joshua was ready to be knocked out in round 6 after being dropped hard by Klitschko. The mistake the Ukrainian fighter made in not going after a badly hurt and gassed out Joshua in rounds 6 through 9. Joshua was there to be stopped, as he was hurt and very, very tired. Instead of trying to finish Joshua off, Wladimir played it safe and just jabbed. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Wladimir didn’t go for the knockout, and he let the fight get away from at the end.
Surprisingly, Joshua was ahead on the scorecards by 2 of the judges at the time of the stoppage. Boxing News 24 had Wladimir ahead in the fight going into round 11 by a 7 rounds to 3 score. Joshua was out-boxed badly in rounds 4 through 10.
What we learned tonight was Joshua is not that fast of hand, and he has HORRIBLE stamina. Moreover, Joshua’s chin is not good at all. Wladimir had Joshua hurt in rounds 4, 5, 6 and 7. Wladimir just didn’t go after Wladimir to try and finish him off the way he needed to for him to get the knockout. The knockout was there for Wladimir if had shown some courage and poured it on after hurting Joshua. After Wladimir knocked Joshua down in the 6th, Joshua was still badly hurt in round 7.
Wladimir didn’t try to score the knockout. I still don’t know why. That was a stupid mistake. It appeared that Wladimir was gassed a little himself, and he also seemed afraid to let his hands go. It was extremely lucky for Joshua that he wasn’t fighting a heavyweight with more of a killer instinct like Deontay Wilder, because there’s no way that Joshua would have made it out of the 6th round if it had been him in the ring. I hate to say it but Joshua does not have the chin or the stamina to beat someone that has stamina, size and most importantly power.
“19-0, 3 ½ years in the ring, I’m not perfect but I’m trying,” said Joshua after the fight. “I don’t know if Wladimir wants to come fight me again. He’s a role model in and outside of the ring. Fury, Tyson Fury, where are you, man? I know Tyson Fury is out there. I want to fight everyone,” said the 27-year-old Joshua.
Klitschko said after the fight that he has a rematch clause in the contract for a second fight against Joshua. If that’s the case, then we could see a second fight between the two fighters in the near future. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case or not. It would be great to see the two giant heavyweights fight again to see if Wladimir could avenge his loss.
“Of course, we have in the contract, and after I analyze what the heck happened,” said Wladimir after the fight when asked if he wants to fight Joshua again. “The best man won tonight, and it was an amazing night of boing. Anthony was better than me tonight. It was sad, I didn’t make it tonight,” said Wladimir.
For Joshua’s sake, he should try and weasel out of the rematch with Wladimir, because I think he’ll lose the second fight. Wladimir will have time to digest what he did wrong and improve on his performance in the rematch and knock Joshua out. I don’t think Joshua can improve because his stamina is dreadful. He’s basically a 6-round fighter, to be honest. The only reason why Joshua was able to come back tonight was because Wladimir slowed the pace down by jabbing and letting Joshua rest after round 6. That was so stupid. If Wladimir’s late trainer Emanuel Steward was in his corner tonight, he would have been all over him in between rounds, shouting at him to finish Joshua off. What was Wladimir’s current trainer saying to him in between rounds tonight? It looked like he wanted him to box Joshua instead of finish him off.
I think Joshua needs to make DRASTIC improvements in his game by losing 20 pounds of the useless muscle that he’s put on in the last 4 years, because he’s too slow at 250 to be fighting at a high level. All that bodybuilding muscle came back to bite Joshua in the backside tonight when he gassed out after exerting himself in the 5th round. Joshua only threw a handful of punches for him to gas out in the 5th. He was SO tired. It was sad to see how poorly conditioned Joshua was. You’ve got to realize that it’s very hard for a fighter’s heart to pump blood to all those muscles when a fighter has a bodybuilding physique like Joshua. That’s why I was saying that Joshua was a far better heavyweight when he fought in the 2012 Olympics at 220. He was quicker at that time and he was capable of fighting hard for three minutes of every round without fading like we saw tonight. Joshua is not going to be a long time champion. His boxing fans need to sit down and smell the coffee.
Joshua doesn’t have the stamina to stay at the top for a long time as a champion. That much is clear. Joshua was recently talking this week about him wanting to surpass Floyd Mayweather Jr. in career accomplishments and become a billionaire in boxing. I don’t see either of those things happening. I mean, Joshua can maybe make a billion if his promoter Eddie Hearn throws him back in with the fodder opposition that he was facing in his first 18 fights as a pro. But if Hearn puts Joshua in with quality fighters, he’s going to lose big time before long.
