Heavyweight champion and British superstar Anthony Joshua attempted to defend his pair of belts against Carlos Takam today. He was successful after stopping the late replacement challenger in ten rounds. It wasn’t exactly the walk over that everyone expected, but the champion controlled the fight most of the way and got his late finish, albeit it was on a questionable stoppage.
The first three rounds of the main event were fairly uneventful. Anthony Joshua (20, 20 KOs) won them, but Carlos Takam (35-4-1, 27 KOs) was being very tricky with his movement and did land a shot or two here and there. It wasn’t exactly compelling stuff, however. Joshua was failing to cut off the ring and use his jab to keep the France based Cameroonian where he wanted him.
In the fourth round, the unified British heavyweight titlist landed a beautiful two punch combination that ripped a bad cut over Takam’s right eye. After a bit of weird protesting to the referee, the fight continued. Maybe because the challenger’s vision was compromised, Joshua was able to land a nice left hook that sent Carlos Takam reeling and his glove touching the canvas for an official knockdown right at the end of the round.
Takam came out with a renewed gameplan in the fifth after a doctor had time to inspect the cut. He tried to get inside, but really it just let Joshua land more and lightly wobble him time and time again. The sixth was better for the challenger at least, though he probably still didn’t win it. At least there he was ripping to the body as he got hit upstairs.
The seventh was even better for the Cameroonian. Though he kept pawing at his eye to wipe away the blood, he repeatedly landed his right again and again. I thought he clearly won the frame, though Joshua did land some good shots of his own too. The unified titlist upped his activity level to reclaim his winning ways in the eighth though.
I thought the British star came out looking a little tired in the ninth. He spent the the first minute mostly clinching and then allowed Takam to win the rest of the round on activity. Joshua was even being pushed back in the last thirty seconds in the ninth.
It didn’t matter though. The tenth round marked the end for Carlos Takam. An uppercut just before the midpoint of the round got Takam’s attention first by wobbling him. Afterward Joshua moved in to attack, but before he could get much going to follow up the referee inexplicably jumped in to stop the fight. This was a bad stoppage. It probably didn’t matter unless for some reason you care about the perfect knockout record, but it was bad anyway.
Still, Joshua was going to win and remains unbeaten. This fight satisfied his IBF mandatory, but he probably has a WBA mandatory next if they can settle who their top contender is. Hopefully they cannot and we get a fighter with Deontay Wilder or Joseph Parker next, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Dillian Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) and Kal Yafai (23-0, 14 KOs) also picked up wins on the undercard. Whyte was rocked a bit in the second round, but ultimately won a pretty uneventful fight as his opponent Robert Helenius (25-2, 15 KOs) didn’t seem all that interested in taking risks. WBA super flyweight titlist Khalid Yafai kept himself in the conversation for a big fight on HBO’s early 2018 Superfly sequel card by outpointing previously unbeaten Japanese challenger Sho Ishida (24-1, 13 KOs). Ishida had a few spirited rounds that he won, but Yafai clearly won the vast majority and earned his successful defense.
