Facing his stiffest in ring test since dethroning Wladimir Klitschko, Anthony Joshua rallied in round seven to emphatically knock out Alexander Povetkin.
The first round of the main event was a tense sign of things to come. Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) landed a beautiful body shot early that froze his Russian challenger, but the best work came from Alexander Povetkin (34-2, 24 KOs) at the end of the round. The Russian landed a sharp three punch combination that wobbled Joshua and had him bleeding from the nose. He then came out and landed good work to start the second round as well. AJ spent the rest of the second frame trying to figure him out, but nothing much landed from either guy. “Sasha” Povetkin again came out with great work to start the third. This was not the expected fight. Joshua settled in and got some good work done in the last minute to maybe steal the round back though. Still, the momentum was all the Russian’s through the first quarter of the main event
The British superstar took a smarter, more measured approach in the fourth round behind his jab. A head clash also opened a cut over Povetkin’s eye. The Russian was still charging forward, but he didn’t get the better of that one. The challenger rebounded with an excellent fifth round. He popped Joshua with a nice right hand early that got his attention, later tagging him twice with a pair of left hooks. The sixth round was the closest in the first half of the fight. Both men got their quality work in. On my card Alexander Povetkin narrowly edged it with his sustained flurry in the middle of the round. I had him up 4-2 at the heavyweight title fight’s half way point.
Scoring went out the window in the seventh round. After two nice right hands at the start of the frame for “Sasha,” it all very quickly fell apart. A pinpoint straight right hand wobbled the Russian badly. A follow up flurry included several huge shots culminating in a left hook and right hand that floored him along the ropes. In fact, he partially fell through as he tried to rise. The fight could have been rightfully waved off there, but the challenger was given one last opportunity to come back. He couldn’t. Another couple huge shots from AJ punctuated by a monster right with Povetkin leaning against the ropes caused the fight to be called right as the Russian corner was jumping up to stop the fight too.
The star of Anthony Joshua only grows here. He faced adversity and was potentially down on the cards, but his sharp offense smashed him out of trouble in a hurry. My hat is off to Alexander Povetkin too, provided he passes the post-fight drug tests anyway. That’s been an issue in the past. Giving him the benefit of the doubt here, however, this was an outstanding performance from the longtime Russian contender. He was great in there. He was arguably winning against the top heavyweight in the world before getting hurt and finished in the seventh round. Povetkin’s offense was sharp, quick, and violent. It wasn’t enough in the end, but his stock has to rise here too.
All in all it was a great fight and a great all around watch. Check it out as soon as you can. DAZN will have it on demand going forward in the states.
Post-fight Anthony Joshua talked about putting a poll out on Twitter to determine his next opponent, as if that wasn’t a given in Deontay Wilder. When asked about the potential fight directly, he remained a bit non-committal. I am no more hopeful that we will see the fight on Joshua’s reserved April 13th after this than I was before. He seemed more into rematching Dillian Whyte, though he did begrudgingly name Wilder as his preferred opponent when pressed repeatedly at the end of the Sky interview.
