By Keith Idec

Anthony Joshua will be slightly heavier for his fight against Carlos Takam than he was when he beat Wladimir Klitschko.

The 6-feet-6 Joshua weighed in at a career-high 254 pounds Friday for his title defense against Takam on Saturday night at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The 6-feet-1½ Takam got on the British Boxing Board of Control scale at 235½ pounds at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.

Joshua weighed in at 250 pounds prior to his epic comeback victory over Ukraine’s Klitschko on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London. The knockout artist from Watford, England, weighed 230¾ pounds for his pro debut four years ago.

There was talk before Friday’s weigh-in of the muscular Joshua coming in lighter for this fight than he was for Klitschko, but that didn’t happen.

The 28-year-old Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) is listed by many Internet sports books as a 50-1 favorite over the 36-year-old Takam (35-3-1, 27 KOs). Cameroon’s Takam took the fight on 12 days’ notice, after Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev pulled out due to a shoulder injury.

Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs), ranked No. 2 by the IBF, is the IBF’s mandatory challenger for Joshua’s title. Facing the third-ranked Takam will satisfy Joshua’s mandatory obligation.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist also will defend his IBO and WBA championships Saturday night.

A capacity crowd of roughly 78,000 is expected to attend the card headlined by Joshua-Takam. Approximately 90,000 fans packed Wembley Stadium for Joshua’s 11th-round technical knockout of Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs).

The Joshua-Takam match will be broadcast by Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom (£19.95) and Showtime in the United States (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT).

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