Don’t rule out Wladmir Klitschko.
So fight week is here and the British public and the world cannot wait for this super fight to take place Saturday night at the World famous Wembley Stadium. 90,000 members of the public – as well as the millions watching around the world are going to witness British boxing history when these two get it on; it’s going to be one hell of a night for sure.
Anthony Joshua has been pretty much perfect up until this point, the only slight slip-up (if you could call it that) in his career so far came against Dillian Whyte when he was wobbled in their fight back in 2015 but I think that was all down to being too emotionally involved in the fight as their history went back to the amateurs. Has Joshua had that real test yet? No. He hasn’t had a test at all and he now comes up against Dr. Steel Hammer-himself Wladmir Klitschko.
The majority of Britain are predicting Joshua to deal with Wlad, winning easily and knocking the veteran out when realistically I would be very surprised if it happens to be that easy. Klitschko has had an impressive 68 fights compared to his opponents 18, so it’s obviously clear here who has the vast experience over the other. All of Joshua’s most recent opponents so far have ‘talked the talk’ before the fight, yet when fight night comes around they appear to become absolutely petrified with the only exception being Whyte. Unfortunately for Joshua this won’t happen with Wladmir. He has fought in front of massive crowds over his hugely impressive career so I don’t think the occasion will bother him too much. What is really interesting is how much Joshua is the favourite in this fight. Klitschko sports an impressive 78% KO ratio in his 68 fights, that’s very good considering the amount of fights the man has had and he doesn’t have a bad resume either, with his most notable wins in the last 5 years coming from: Alexander Povetkin, Bryant Jennings and Britain’s own David Haye – who Wladmir dealt with easily. Were people really thinking Anthony Joshua could knock out Klitschko before the Tyson Fury fight? I’m not so sure but it seems that the fact Klitschko has had that loss to Tyson is what makes fans believe he is past it.
Did he get old overnight? Or was Tyson simply too unorthodox, quick and lightfooted for him to deal with? Who knows? The difference in this fight is that Joshua certainly doesn’t move and throw punches the way Tyson Fury does and that’s the reason Klitschko struggled against him but take that loss away then you have a seriously good fighter that can really trouble Joshua.I well and truly hope that this is the big fight for Anthony Joshua and he becomes a global superstar by beating Klitschko – but don’t rule out Wladmir so quickly: he is a master craftsman in this sport and Anthony Joshua must be on his A-game.
Words by Matt Wright
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