Eddie Hearn Didn't Think Joshua Would Get Up in the 6th Round

By Keith Idec

Eddie Hearn was honest.

Anthony Joshua’s promoter didn’t think the huge heavyweight would get off the canvas in the sixth round against Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London. Hearn noticed that Joshua was extremely tired during the fifth round, in which he dropped Klitschko 27 seconds into it, yet didn’t finish off the former heavyweight champion.

Hearn, managing director for Matchroom Sport, figured Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) didn’t have enough energy to do what he did – get up, regain his composure and find a second wind that eventually enabled Joshua to floor Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) twice more in the 11th round and stop him to record by far the biggest victory of his 3½-year pro career.

“When he knocked Wlad down in the fifth, he lost his mind a little bit,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com early Sunday morning. “He started screaming because he thought it was over. He ran to the corner and I could see him. I said to him, like, ‘Stay calm! Stay calm!’ And then he went for him like 35, 40 seconds. But Wlad’s clever. He’s not like a lot of guys who might be like a rabbit in headlights. He was holding him, draining him. And he took a few at the end of the round, and he went back to the corner and I thought, ‘Wow! He’s He’s shattered.’ He came out for the sixth very tired and he got hit with a huge right hand. I don’t know how hurt he was, but he was just exhausted and I didn’t think he’d make it up. He made it up, he made Wlad miss a lot there, which I think was important.”

It also was important, according to Hearn, for Joshua to use the seventh and eighth rounds to get his legs back under him.

Ukraine’s Klitschko acknowledged that he “could’ve done more” to finish Joshua once he got up in the sixth round. Klitschko also admitted that he thought Joshua was “out of gas,” which made him think he could take his time while trying to stop the 2012 Olympic gold medalist.

“And seven and eight, he was able to get another breath,” Hearn continued. “And nine and 10, he won. And the 11th round he knocked him out, so I was like – I was calm, but I knew what might happen. You know what I mean? But to be honest with you, by then the fight was so good that if he would’ve lost the fight, it never felt like it would’ve been the end of the world. Do you know what I mean?

“Because if you lose to Wladimir Klitschko in your 19th fight, it’s really not a disgrace. You know? But what he did was he recorded an emphatic victory in the end, and just a fight that there won’t be one person here who left this arena and won’t remember that for the rest of their life. And as a promoter, that makes me very proud.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.