It’s not GGG-Canelo 2, but this weekend’s headlining fight is a real big one too. Three belt unified titleholder and British megastar Anthony Joshua defends against longtime contender and arguable #3 heavyweight Alexander Povetkin in front of a huge crowd at Wembley.
Everyone knows who Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) is in the sport of boxing. If someone is reading this without knowing who he is (Hi, Mom!), why would they be on a boxing site to begin with? After bringing home gold at home in London in the 2012 Olympic games, “AJ” was already a star on some level before he even took on his first professional bout. Appearing chiseled from stone and possessing a well spoken sort of charisma, Joshua had all the makings of a major attraction from day one. Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing have obviously done a brilliant job promoting the British megastar, but they definitely had the ideal ingredients to work with at the start too.
Anthony Joshua started his career with fourteen straight stoppage wins over the usual suspects. He picked up a few faded local names like Matt Skelton and Michael Sprott for his ledger as well as a couple equally faded American names such as Kevin Johnson. There was no real challenge in any of these, but the fights were necessary for fighter development. Through it all, AJ’s star only grew brighter.
It was his fifteenth fight against fellow prospect Dillian Whyte for the British heavyweight crown that brought the first bit of excitement to Anthony Joshua’s career. Facing a fellow young unbeaten fighter, Joshua found himself in a bit of trouble in the first two rounds before taking over to smash out Whyte in the seventh. The ability to overcome adversity to storm back and win via stoppage was definitely a bit of foreshadowing for things to come later for AJ.
As tough as the Whyte fight was, Joshua’s first world title opportunity in his very next fight was absurdly weak. Charles Martin has a serious argument for being the weakest heavyweight titleholder of all time. The American won his belt without landing a shot thanks to a freak injury in a vacant title fight he had no right to be in to begin with. Accordingly, Joshua smashed him out in two. The British heavyweight titleholder’s next two fights were better against Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina, but neither man had the physical ability to challenge him.
Longtime divisional king Wladimir Klitschko certainly did, however. While Tyson Fury’s points win over Klitschko had taken a little of the luster off the dominant Ukrainian, this was still a major matchup. Plus, Fury’s win, as huge as it was, was in a bit of a tedious fight without a really satisfying conclusion. That would not be the case here. After four slow rounds, Joshua came to life in the fifth to batter the veteran and send him to the canvas. He may have exerted too much going for the finish, however, as Wladimir came back with what briefly looked like a knockout shot of his own in the sixth. Joshua was badly hurt, but Klitschko did not press his advantage and he survived. That might have been his undoing. After several more tense rounds, Anthony Joshua once again found his chin in the eleventh. Wladimir valiantly ate several huge shots, but ultimately he went down twice and the torch was passed to the heavyweight division’s new king. As was Klitschko’s WBA belt to pair with the IBF edition Joshua already had.
After his career defining knockout win in April of last year, Joshua defended his titles against Carlos Takam in a solid ten round performance. Takam is an underrated fighter and landed a bit more than he got credit for, but he didn’t really win much in terms of rounds. The stoppage in the tenth was bogus and looked potentially suspiciously designed to preserve the British star’s unblemished knockout record, but it wasn’t one people really got mad at. Carlos Takam wasn’t winning that fight in the next couple rounds.
This led to a unification fight with WBO titleholder Joseph Parker back in March. This was a fight a lot of people were excited about, but it has become increasingly clear that Parker is a pretty dull fighter in the ring. The Kiwi fought pretty well by neutralizing a lot of AJ’s normally powerful offense, but he didn’t get enough of his own back in to have an argument in very many of the rounds. He did force the British money printer to show that he could go twelve full rounds for the first time, ruining his perfect knockout percentage along the way. It isn’t as if he forced Anthony into a fast pace over those rounds though so I don’t know what we really learned about his gas tank other than that it at the very least isn’t terrible. At the end of the night Joshua had his hand raised and the WBO belt added to his collection.
Afterward, Eddie Hearn and WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder’s team tried to get together to make the battle for the undisputed championship. Despite the fight seemingly being agreed to briefly, the highly clamored for matchup never materialized. At the time it looked like Team Joshua wasn’t that interested as they can make huge money in easier fights, but none of us were privy to what exactly broke down so it is hard to say for sure. Before negotiations could finish, if they were really ever going to, the WBA ordered this fight and here we are.
39 year old Alexander Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs) has journeyed down a much different road than his Saturday opponent, but it actually started at the same location. Like Joshua, Povetkin turned pro with the hype of Olympic gold following his win in Greece in 2004 on the heels of a breakout performance at the World Championships the year before. What Povetkin did not have, however, is the built in British fanbase that has made AJ into the star he is. The Russian boxing scene has improved leaps and bounds in recent years, but in the early 2000s “Sasha” Povetkin started his career in Germany like basically all mainland European stars did and some still do.
Two years after turning pro, Povetkin found himself 12-0 and taking his second fight back home in Russia in his first real step up against aging former contender Larry Donald. The American was two fights removed from outpointing Evander Holyfield and probably deserved a decision over local freak show attraction, seven foot giant Nicolai Valuev in his most recent fight. It was a good test for a young fighter on paper even if Donald wasn’t really a top ten guy and Povetkin dominated in a shut out decision. This win launched Alexander into a title eliminator tournament in which he first bashed out former titleholder Chris Byrd and then dominated unbeaten American Eddie Chambers in back to back fights to earn the right to meet divisional king Wladimir Klitschko.
Except that fight didn’t happen, at least not then. Povetkin suffered a foot injury and missed his opportunity. Sasha lost his career momentum in a big way after that. He managed to sign up retired trainer Teddy Atlas, but then the two of them wasted his next three years and six fights taking on regional level guys that did nothing for the Russian. In fact, during this run Povetkin once again agreed to meet Wladimir Klitschko, but this time Atlas apparently talked him out of it. The problem was that the fight was basically done and a press conference set for the next day. This left Klitschko infamously standing alone posing with a cardboard cutout of Povetkin when he didn’t show up.
Finally in 2011, Alexander stepped back up to take on the always durable and competent Ruslan Chagaev for a secondary version of one of Wladimir’s belts. He won a clear decision. After an easy first defense, he and Atlas ended up parting ways right before the biggest fight of his career. In early 2012, the Russian accepted the challenge of longtime cruiserweight titleholder Marco Huck. Huck was a huge star in Germany where Povetkin was also well known at this point and this was quite the lucrative showdown for both men. For Povetkin, however, it was the first time cracks appeared in the armor in the ring. Huck gave a spectacular effort against the bigger man. It was an exciting, narrowly contested fight that quite frankly could have been scored in either direction without issue. Given that he was facing a cruiserweight, this was a bit of a loss for Sasha despite the fact that he did get the razor thin majority decision in the end.
Afterward he took two lower level fights before finally stepping up to meet Wladimir Klitschko in one of the more hotly anticipated defenses of the Ukrainian all time great’s career. Unfortunately, the fight didn’t live up to even the smallest amount of hype. It was terrible. Povetkin was only partially to blame though. He did what he needed to in bullying his way inside, but once there Wladimir clinched, held, pushed, and shoved. Whatever it took to make sure no fight happened on the inside. Given that the challenger basically couldn’t engage on the outside because of the size difference, this meant no fighting happened at all. It was absolutely dreadful and the bigger man was allowed to do it all night other than a token, meaningless, and far too late point deduction for holding near the end of the fight.
In the past five years since, Alexander Povetkin is 8-0 with six finishes. He’s mostly fought good opponents on the European level like Manuel Charr, Mariusz Wach, Johann Duhaupas, and Christian Hammer, but he hasn’t faced a world level opponent since unless you count Carlos Takam in 2014. There aren’t usually very many of them at the weight though. Takam is underrated and put on a great effort, fighting even with Povetkin until the superior Russian finally got to him in the tenth round for the finish. Most recently in March on the undercard of Joshua-Parker, Povetkin had a somewhat worryingly fun showdown with powerful but busted former British prospect David Price that culiminated in a fifth round finish. Price is an extremely flawed fighter, but he does have power and he clearly hurt Povetkin in the third round.
Though 39 isn’t necessarily as old for a heavyweight as it would be for anyone at any other weight class, that plus the Price performance are certainly a concern. Again, Price can definitely crack though and the Brit’s offense has never been his issue. I’d also be quite remiss if I didn’t mention that heavyweight always carries a little extra touch of randomness to it due to the size and power of the men throwing leather in there. Yet, at the same time, it is hard not to compare. Christian Hammer and Erken Teper didn’t have these problems with David Price and Povetkin is supposed to be much better than them. He even beat Hammer with ease a few years ago.
If a fighter struggles with dealing with the complete package of David Price in 2018, how is he going to fair against Anthony Joshua? On paper, not well. Joshua does everything Price does well even better. I have always said that I don’t think AJ is actually a huge puncher so maybe Price does have more one shot pop, but the culmination of what Joshua does is so much more than a David Price. Yet, at the same time, I can’t help but wonder how seriously Povetkin took the fight in March. David has largely been reduced to punchline status in European boxing. He’s the busted prospect that has no chin, defense, or stamina. Maybe Sasha didn’t put that much effort into preparing for it and wasn’t weary enough of Price’s power come the fight itself.
Even if that is true, Joshua remains and deserves to be a heavy favorite here. Of course, there is another reason for this too. An astute reader may have been highly annoyed with my summation of Povetkin’s career as I definitely glossed over what could be argued as his legacy defining issue over the past couple years. Alexander Povetkin has failed two drug tests that cost him two big fights in Russia. In 2016, WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder was all set to travel abroad for a megafight opportunity for the local fighter but it was canceled last minute when Povetkin popped. Next in early 2017 with Wilder out with an injury, Povetkin got another WBC opportunity for an interim title fight with Bermane Stiverne. This time both men failed drug tests and Povetkin was removed from contention by the sanctioning body for his second offense. I am not making any accusation here about Alexander beyond those two tests, but it is definitely worth noting that Russian athletes have a well documented history with government sanctioned PED use. Prior to the WBC opportunities, Sasha Povetkin was not necessarily being consistently tested with any stringency. Then he was and he failed, twice. I’ll let everyone draw their own conclusions from there.
Alexander Povetkin is maybe an old 39, undersized compared to his opponent, coming off an iffy performance, and potentially without performance aids that he might have been using historically. He’s a heavy underdog here as we’ve discussed and he should be. At the same time, however, he’s a technically skilled fighter with a long time pedigree in the sport. He’s only actually lost once in a fight he basically wasn’t allowed to fight in at all by his opponent or the officials. Its true that he is a longshot, but so is everyone else in the division right now against Anthony Joshua that isn’t Deontay Wilder. Of course everyone wants to see that fight before anything else, but absent that there is an argument that this is the most compelling fight for Joshua left. Who else? I could see arguments for a Dillian Whyte rematch, but that’s it. Tyson Fury would be huge, of course, but he’s presently tied up with Wilder at least in negotiations.
The division doesn’t have the depth that you’d like, but this is my #1 versus #3 at the weight. You can’t argue with that.
The undercard is decent too. Eddie Hearn and Matchroom never get enough credit for that. The co-main event is a title eliminator and rematch between French lightweight Yvan Mendy (40-4-1, 19 KOs) and 2012 British gold medalist Luke Campbell (18-2, 15 KOs). At the tail end of 2015, Campbell looked well on his way to stardom when he was shockingly upset by Mendy at home in the UK. It was a great and unexpected performance by the Frenchman. He even put the Olympic champion down early in the fight. Yet, to me the real story is what came next for the men. Luke rebounded pretty well. He won five straight next including solid wins over Argenis Mendez, Derry Matthews, and Darleys Perez to earn his way in with then consensus top lightweight Jorge Linares for his second fight in the US and an HBO main event. Campbell fought damn well that night, especially late, and he almost nicked it in the end before losing on competitive cards. It was redemption in a loss. That was a year ago now and the former Olympic king has spent the time away from the world level, though he did take a six round stay busy tune up in May.
As for Yvan Mendy, how did he capitalize on a career altering victory? By doing nothing at all. Before the big win Yvan was beating regional level guys mostly at home in France. Since the win he has been doing the same. In 2016 he did pick up the Euro title, but that is about as far as he bothered to go. I have no idea if the opportunities never came or if there was no desire to really move up, but either way it didn’t happen. Now the WBC has the two men back together again. Given that Mendy won reasonably comfortably the first time he would logically become the favorite here too, but their career arcs have been so different compared to one another that I actually expect Luke Campbell to get his revenge here. Then again, he was expected to win the first time too though. This is a really solid co-main event.
Also in action is hot cruiserweight prospect Lawrence Okolie (9-0, 7 KOs) taking a step up to compete for his first British title against serviceable domestic veteran Matty Askin (23-3-1, 15 KOs). That could be a coming out party or a real lesson for the 25 year old. Unbeaten Russian heavyweight Sergey Kuzmin (12-0, 8 KOs) takes on the aforementioned David Price (22-5, 18 KOs) too and outstanding amateur Shakhram Giyasov (4-0, 3 KOs) is also on the show.
Other than wishing Joshua was in with Wilder, there isn’t much to complain about here. This is a really solid show. In the UK Sky Box Office will have the card as a PPV as is normal for AJ action, but stateside we have a new twist for this one. International sports streaming service DAZN (Da-Zone) launched its American service about a week ago and this event is its real first offering. The service is priced a $9.99/mo and will feature 32 Matchroom Boxing cards (split evenly between the US and UK), the three World Boxing Super Series season two tournaments, and a whole bunch of Bellator MMA action as well. To me that is enough value, but it doesn’t have to be for you to watch this one as DAZN is offering the first month free anyway. Sign up and just remember to cancel after the event if this is all that you want. DAZN’s website is listing the undercards starting at 1 PM Eastern and the main event for 4:30 PM Eastern. That seems a little early to me for the big fight, but I suppose they can’t put up a time that risks being too late at all. That’d be a bad start for a card that is otherwise an excellent beginning on paper.
