By Keith Idec
Eddie Hearn couldn’t have been more proud of how Anthony Joshua responded to adversity Saturday.
The knockout artist from suburban London made himself an even bigger star by getting off the canvas in the sixth round and stopping Wladimir Klitschko five rounds later. Their memorable battle provided just the type of entertainment the heavyweight division needed.
Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, had no qualms about admitting, though, that what took place in the fifth and sixth rounds provided evidence that, despite the outcome, Joshua took that difficult fight a bit too soon. Before their heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium in London, Hearn had said this type of fight ideally would’ve come in Joshua’s 26th or 27th fight, not the 19th bout of a pro career that began just 3½ years ago.
“You see he’s not ready,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com early Sunday morning. “I keep saying, ‘Is it too early for Anthony Joshua?’ Yes. You saw that [Saturday night]. In five or six fights’ time, he wins that fight inside five rounds every day of the week. But he’s not been past seven rounds. He hasn’t boxed a fighter as clever as Wlad. He hasn’t boxed a puncher like Wlad. You know, he hasn’t boxed in front of a crowd like that.
“He’s learning all the time. But to learn in that environment exposes you, all your inabilities. All your weaknesses are exposed, especially in your 19th fight. Because now he goes, ‘Wow!’ Imagine [know how] much you learn from that fight? You can’t buy experience like that. That’s better than fighting 10 guys who you knock out in three rounds, which other heavyweights are doing.”
England’s Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) staggered Ukraine’s Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs) with a left-right combination just five seconds into the fifth round, wobbled Klitschko with another left hook less than 20 seconds later and floored the former champion only 27 seconds into that three-minute period.
Klitschko got up, however, quickly recovered and by the end of the round was landing power punches of his own against Joshua, who appeared to punch himself out while trying to finish off Klitschko earlier in the fifth.
Despite that he had nearly four times as much professional experience prior to their fight, Klitschko also made a costly tactical mistake in the sixth round. Klitschko acknowledged after his first knockout loss in 13 years that he “could’ve done more” to try to finish off Joshua once his straight right hand floored Joshua in the sixth round.
Instead, Klitschko allowed Joshua, who went down with 1:53 to go in the sixth round, to regain his composure, get his legs back under him and eventually unload on Klitschko again to start the 11th round.
Ultimately, accepting such a huge challenge in just his 19th pro fight paid off for Joshua and Matchroom Sport, the promotional company Hearn serves as managing director.
“I felt like it was the right fight because it was time to gamble, it was time to step up,” Hearn said. “He won the [IBF] world heavyweight title. He had two standard defenses [against Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina] and the public wanted to see it. We live in a world, with social media engagement, you know what fans want.
“People don’t wanna part with their money unless it’s what they wanna see. So they wanted to see that, as you saw [Saturday night]. And they’d wanna see it again, and they’d wanna see any other fight again of Anthony Joshua’s.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
