Only in adversity could Anthony Joshua prove to us, and to himself, the depths of the fighter that he has become
Thursday 29 April 2021 10:27, UK
Only with his fearsome aura dangling precariously did we learn about the true Anthony Joshua. We discovered a fighter who possessed an answer for every question that haunted him.
Anthony Joshua early, Wladimir Klitschko late. Everything that should never have happened, did happen, meaning Joshua's fiercest critics and his giddiest fans must humbly unite on a hazy Sunday morning to confess that nobody knew the truth about what he could do.
Joshua bared his soul and exposed his frailties and, in doing so, revealed the extraordinary depths to the fighter that he has become. Not only to the 90,000 attendees at Wembley Stadium (a post-war boxing record in Britain) and to the 192 countries watching worldwide, but more pertinently to himself. Joshua, as with all prize-fighters, could never have truly understood the determination that existed within himself until he was forced to rely upon it.
Only while sat on the canvas, smiling awkwardly while looking up at the blinding lights, could Joshua have understood something about himself that he could never have learned through 18 previous knockouts. Only with his arms burning and his head spinning could he have answered the lingering doubts that must have existed within his own mind, as well as with those who questioned him.
It was a night's work so difficult that absorbing Klitschko's straight right hand - for years, the most powerful punch in boxing - was a mere footnote in Joshua's eventual struggles. The level of difficulty in his accomplishment could not have been prepared for, nor could his reaction have been anticipated.
Chin check? Check. For the first time in his career Joshua was forced into full survival mode when Klitschko floored him in the sixth round, then tried to finish the job. It was startling to see the hunter become the hunted, but Joshua would not be caught despite being obviously wounded.
The next problem was already emerging before Joshua had recovered from withstanding by far the most painful punch of his career. A round before being knocked down, Joshua had put Klitschko down and the ramifications of failing to finish his fallen foe were coming back to haunt him.
Joshua had punched himself out, and in the middle rounds, looked tired beyond the point of recovery. His arms were sagging and his face was unprotected, and Klitschko smelled blood.
Thirty-six hours prior Joshua had weighed 10 pounds heavier than Klitschko, a ploy that favoured an early stoppage rather than boxing beyond the seventh round for the first time. That muscled frame suddenly became a burden that he couldn't haul around the ring with as much zeal as in the first handful of rounds.
The nagging fear must have always been that Joshua's engine would fail him and, for approximately 10 minutes, he struggled to refuel while Klitschko's faster feet earned him round after round on the scorecards. Joshua was being out-boxed and out-hustled. Tired, hurt and outside of his comfort zone, a defeat that would have reverberated around British sport seemed imminent.
The grit and guts required to survive this rocky period is what should define Joshua's victory over Klitschko. "It was testament to him as a person, of his character," trainer Rob McCracken eulogised afterwards. Surely even he, Great Britain's Olympic coach, will have gulped nervously as he awaited his star pupil's reaction to such adversity.
Then, the 11th round, Joshua, who ought to be too tired, was suddenly bobbing on his toes again. His punch power was not supposed to last beyond seven rounds, but he knocked Klitschko down twice.
Carrying such ferocious power into the dwindling minutes (albeit not throughout the fight) is a new skill-set that Joshua's future challengers must now consider. Immersed in the forbidden territory where popular opinion suggested Klitschko should dominate, Joshua won. And everything we thought we knew turned upside down.
Collectively we witnessed a heavyweight with stark vulnerabilities but also with newfound attributes. The Joshua that should emerge is a more daunting prospect than ever before.
