The night Anthony Joshua made his winning professional debut, at the O2 Arena in London on 5 October 2013, Wladimir Klitschko was in Moscow, defending his various versions of the world heavyweight title for the 22nd time to draw alongside Muhammad Ali in longevity at that level. There was not a single soul in boxing who imagined then that the winners that night would meet less than four years later in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium.
While young Joshua was bringing the eight-fight unbeaten run of Emanuele Leo to a painful halt 13 seconds from the safety of the first bell, the world champion was beating out a metronomic rhythm on the head of Alexander Povetkin – also undefeated to that point in his career, and surviving trips to the floor in the second and seventh rounds to hang on over the full distance, comprehensively outboxed.
Leo never fought again. Povetkin, who emerged with his “silver” version of the WBC title intact, has soldiered on with five solid wins against nondescript opponents.
Joshua is now a world champion, anointed by the IBF and reaching also for the WBA’s “super” belt next Saturday night. Klitschko arrives with no belt and, at 41, an uncertain future.
Tyson Fury punctured the Ukrainian’s aura two Novembers ago on the weekend when Great Britain were winning the Davis Cup for the first time in 79 years, a sporting double that might not be repeated for a while. Neither of them has fought since, Fury struggling with mental health issues and the suspension of his licence, Klitschko idling in the shadows while Joshua has moved irresistibly into the spotlight.
Say what you like about Eddie Hearn’s monopoly of boxing, but he consistently delivers major attractions for Sky Box Office and now it is up to Joshua, the biggest single cash cow in British sport, to keep the show going.
He has the perfect stage. Defeat would not wreck his career; victory would bring him credibility money cannot buy. Klitschko, however, is not planning to roll over, physically or figuratively. He looks and sounds relaxed, although that is his normal pre-fight mien, even when provoked – which Joshua has pointedly refused to do in the most gentlemanly of buildups to a world heavyweight title fight anyone can recall.
As Klitschko, the sport’s distinguished elder statesman, said: “All the pressure is on the other side, not on me. I don’t need to defend my titles, I don’t need to [worry about] losing a winning record.
“I just want to enjoy myself in the ring, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy my performance. I want to impress myself, and my knowledge of what I am capable of doing. My world is very small right now. My time is ticking only to the 29 April. There is nothing else.”
It is a nod of recognition towards Joshua that Klitschko seems so focused. He might not have expended such mental energy on Povotkin and a few other of his challengers.
Klitschko strayed briefly into wind-up territory when he observed of the young champion: “There is a lot of pressure on him. He needs to knock me out. He promised it. He wants to become a billionaire. He needs to show what he is capable of doing and all of that in combination is tremendous pressure, unbelievable pressure.”
Is it? Life at the top of any sport brings those very expectations denied lesser competitors. It is what great athletes live for. Novak Djokovic nailed it perfectly a couple of years ago during one of his long unbeaten runs on the tennis court when he described the unremitting call to victory as “the privilege of pressure”. If Joshua did not feel that weight, he would be guilty of complacency – and there is no room for that in a boxing ring, whoever the opponent is.
It is true, however, that Joshua has had a gilded path, apart from a momentary inconvenience when Dillian Whyte clipped him on the whiskers before running on to one of the best uppercuts any fighter has thrown in recent memory.
As Klitschko says: “He is 27 years old and he has had 18 professional fights, so his judgment is only based on his experience.”
Then again, I remember Joshua saying before he beat the American Dominic Breazeale that every heavyweight lives with the prospect of getting knocked down (three of Klitschko’s four defeats have finished with him rendered senseless). “It is getting up that separates the champion from the ordinary fighter. I will always get up.”
However, for all his power, Dr Klitschko is so scientific in his approach that he does not chase knockouts. They come in the course of an exchange rather than randomly. That is why he has won 64 of 68 bouts, 53 of them before the scheduled end – but only a handful past the halfway stage in big fights.
Most of his wins have come after round six in recent years. The odds are that, if there is an early conclusion on Saturday night, it will arrive through the concussive influence of the champion’s right hand rather than the challenger’s. That is what Joshua expects to happen and, unlike his older foe, he is prepared to go looking for it.
