By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) struggled through most of the fight tonight before getting his bearings together in knocking former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin (34-2, 24 KOs) out in the 7th round on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London, England. This was not a good performance by Joshua by any stretch of the imagination. Joshua got the win, but he looked like an oaf at times against the more skilled 2004 Olympic gold medalist Povetkin.
Povetkin had Joshua hurt early on with his big shots. The fight was similar to how Joshua struggled against Wladimir Klitschko and then came back to score a knockout. Povetkin was making Joshua look like a crude amateur in the fight until he landed a big shot to hurt him in the 7th.
Joshua, 28, dropped the 39-year-old Povetkin down with a left hand to the head in the 7th round. Povetkin got back up but was finished off with a flurry of hard shots from Joshua. Povetkin’s power was very much evident in the fight. He did a number on Joshua’s nose and he was wearing him down with his shots. It’s fortunate for Joshua that he didn’t fight Povetkin a couple of years ago when he was still fighting at a high level because he might have lost to him.
Fighting in front of a huge crowd of 90,000, Joshua had a lot of problems with the pressure and the hard shots from the much older and smaller 6’2″ Povetkin This was supposed to have been a dominating performance by the 6’6″ Joshua, but it turned out to be a fight in which the Russian was getting the better of AJ. Povetkin started to tire in the 5th, and this enabled Joshua to use his size to come on and do better. Joshua still wasn’t looking good. He was getting hit a lot and failing to take advantage of his size and youth. It seemed like each time Povetkin landed something, it was hurting Joshua.
“Povetkin is a very tough challenger and he proved it tonight. I realized he was strong to the head but weak to the body,” Joshua said to Sky Sports after his win. “Let’s see whats happening on April 13. Let’s ask the question, I have no mandatories. The sport is about what the fans want, let’s put a poll out on Twitter and see who fans want me to take on. I got my knockout streak back, I found my right hand again,” Joshua said.
It’s hilarious that Joshua is talking about wanting to put a poll together to have his next opponent picked out for him by the boxing fans for his April 13 fight at Wembley Stadium. You don’t need a poll to be created to figure out who the fans want Joshua to fight next in April. It’s obvious that the fans want Joshua to fight WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Joshua’s decision not to call out Wilder directly show how afraid of him he is. If Joshua had any confidence, he would have called Wilder out directly to push for the fight instead of talking about wanting a poll created.
“Joshua’s a real world champion, we will go away now and try and make a fight with [Deontay] Wilder,” Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing said to Sky Sports. “If it’s not Deontay Wilder then it will be Whyte here on April 13.”
I think it’s pretty obvious that Joshua’s next opponent will be fellow Matchroom fighter Dillian Whyte on April 13 Both Joshua and Hearn are both saying that Wilder will need to agree to the $15 million flat fee offer that he was given for the September fight, but that’s not what the American KO machine is looking for. Wilder wants a 50-50 purse split, which could make it somewhere along the lines of $50 million. Whyte will obviously accept far less than that to fight Joshua on April 13, and he’s arguably less dangerous than Povetkin was tonight.