"Wladimir always had a good relationship with his sparring partners but Anthony was special"; The story of Joshua and Klitschko's evolving bond - which began and will continue over a plan to dispatch Kubrat Pulev
Thursday 29 April 2021 10:27, UK
If the hills had eyes, they would know the truth about every sparring rumour from Wladimir Klitschko's factory of domination in the Austrian Alps, they would see future champions stand firm and out-of-their-depth contenders crash, they would watch as aspirations grew for the survivors and dreams died for the many who couldn't cut it.
"We remember one guy - his name was Anthony Joshua," smiles Klitschko's former manager Bernd Boente. All of today's top heavyweights were once brought in by Klitschko for sparring but only one built a strong bond with the great champion, only one has kept a kinship with him to this day.
Sky customers: Buy Joshua v Pulev
Non-Sky customers: Buy Joshua v Pulev
Joshua and Klitschko's connection was immortalised by their classic Wembley battle and, years later, the relationship has come full circle as the retired great mentors the reigning champion. This special association began when they hatched a plan to KO Kubrat Pulev and now the same challenger is at the heart of their latest coalition.
"I spoke to Klitschko," Joshua told Sky Sports about the only man to defeat Pulev in 29 fights.
Joshua's role in Pulev's sole loss was as a sparring partner to the man who dished it out - now Klitschko's fingerprints are all over the current champion's preparation to defend his IBF, WBA and WBO titles on December 12, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
"We speak about fights," Joshua explained. "We spoke about the Oleksandr Usyk vs Derek Chisora fight. I said it would be 50-50, he agreed.
"We spoke about the Pulev fight and I will catch up with him again."
Joshua was an Olympic gold medal and seven knockouts into a burgeoning career when, in summer 2014, an email arrived that most heavyweights worth their salt receive at some point.
"We were so excited when we got the email," long-time insider and current training camp manager David Ghansa told Sky Sports.
"He had won the Olympics but to be called up by Klitschko? AJ thought 'wow'."
Joshua asked if Ghansa, his friend since they were teenagers, could accompany him but was told no.
That memory elicits laughter - the only 'outsider' to accompany a sparring partner into a Klitschko camp was Dean Whyte, the brutish older brother who dwarfs Dillian, and that might explain why nobody told him 'no'.
"AJ went over on his own," said Tony Sims, who was then part of Joshua's training team.
"He went to learn what the top professionals are doing and it did him a lot of good.
"It's good to send your fighter alone somewhere to learn from the top professionals. It makes them stronger mentally to have gone alone to a foreign country to spar a top fighter.
"They learn what they have to do to get to the top.
"There are obstacles and hurdles to becoming a world champion and you need to learn how to get around them."
There could be a fine line between being a punchbag or a trusted part of Klitschko's preparation to defend his world heavyweight championships - in the build-up to face unbeaten challenger Pulev he broke the nose of future British champion Sam Sexton.
Klitschko would systematically recruit the best young heavyweights for his training camp for two purposes; one, to give himself the best possible sparring partners; and two, to scout his future opposition years ahead of time.
This could be a double-edged sword - Eddie Chambers told Sky Sports "it was a mistake" for him to spar Klitschko because he unknowingly gave away his in-ring secrets before unsuccessfully challenging the champion much later.
But it offers an insight into the mindset of Klitschko that he has no regrets over sharing a ring in training with Joshua, the man who would end his career three years later at Wembley Stadium.
"It was a good idea," Klitschko's then-manager Boente shrugs. "Why not?"
There are conflicting messages about whether Klitschko and Joshua were inevitable future opponents.
"Nobody thought then that, three years later, they would fight each other," shrugs Boente but it seems implausible that the great veteran champion wasn't sizing up his future conqueror.
"Wladimir was doing a scouting mission," insists Whyte. "He liked to keep an eye on all the up and coming prospects. He sparred them early, saw what they were like, so he had an idea and an expectation.
"They study future opponents."
Joshua's aide Ghansa agreed: "Klitschko knew what he was doing."
Whyte added: "Klitschko always believed that he was going to fight Joshua.
"A former Olympic champion as well. They were having a look at him, seeing what he was like."
The main task at hand was to create a machine at the resort of Stanglwirt, surrounded by snowy mountains and icy air colder than Klitschko's glare, capable of ending the perfect record of Bulgaria's Pulev.
To do that, he required sparring partners to imitate Pulev - orthodox stance, above 6'4'' and a European style.
"Anthony was taller than Pulev, but the same stance, and a good technical fighter," says Boente who sourced him.
"Anthony fought with his style and those were very interesting sparring rounds - the top, high level," says Boente, one of a privileged few who witnessed the first time Joshua and Klitschko shared a ring in the freezing cold, isolated setting in the Alps.
But something more significant was happening without the gloves on - Klitschko and Joshua had found kindred spirits in each other.
"Yes, from the beginning," Boente says. "Wladimir always had a good relationship with his sparring partners but Anthony was special because he was the Olympic gold medal winner. They had a good relationship, no doubt.
"Anthony is very much a person like Wladimir. He has a strict regime, he is disciplined like Wladimir and Vitali were. We were always impressed by how he trained in Stanglwirt, not only in sparring, but also on the machines, running and swimming.
"Anthony's preparation outside of the ring is of a perfect athlete. The main point to be success is to be disciplined - the secret of Wladimir, Vitali and Anthony is discipline.
"This is what impressed us when we saw Anthony for the first time."
Ghansa compared Klitschko to a young Joshua: "Regimented, disciplined people. They saw it in each other."
Klitschko's mad scientist-like obsession worked - he knocked Pulev out in the fifth round to defend his world heavyweight title.
But fate would keep Pulev intertwined into the Joshua-Klitschko vortex.
After the Wembley masterpiece wrote itself into heavyweight history, Pulev was set to be Joshua's very next opponent later in 2017 but an injury meant he was replaced by Carlos Takam.
Pulev rebuilt with victories over Derek Chisora and Hughie Fury and his destiny has once again brought him between Joshua and Klitschko, whose own relationship has evolved since that first sparring session six years ago.
"Not instantly but mentally he learned what Klitschko was doing," said Tony Sims about Joshua returning home.
"He picked up little things, like how Klitschko changes his sparring partners.
"AJ spoke about it a lot when he came back."
Whyte explained how he learned the same lesson: "One thing that Wladimir does, he has about six, seven sparring partners that give him different looks and different styles and different approaches.
"The one thing that he learned from [his former trainer who passed away in 2012] Emanuel Steward was to try and cover every angle. Try to make sure everything is covered in case this happened or that happened. They knew that I come forward, I'm aggressive and I'm a big, strong guy, so they were trying to cover that angle, even though Pulev wasn't that way inclined. I was going to bring that to the table."
Ghansa now controls the logistics of Joshua's training and knows the influence of that trip to the great Ukrainian's lair. He says: "The main reason AJ went was to see how Klitschko ran his camp.
"When he came back, adjustments were made. Even down to little things like his training schedules.
"He saw things he liked and he took them for his own camp."
Joshua noticed in 2014 how Klitschko employed someone to wrap his hands professionally, as if readying for a fight, before every training session.
Until then, Joshua had just strapped on any old bits of equipment that he could find lying around but not anymore.
"AJ came back and said: 'This is what Klitschko does'," Ghansa explained.
"The further we now go into AJ's career, we realise the importance of making training as fight-like as possible."
The cast of sparring partners is eerily similar.
Klitschko, at various times, used Joshua, Whyte, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Filip Hrgovic, Jarrell Miller, Joseph Parker. You name them, they have probably passed through Stanglwirt.
Today Joshua's state-of-the-art training complex in Sheffield is flooded by ambitious, young sparring partners who aspire to reach his level - Christian Thun, Martin Bakole, David Adeleye, Hosea Stewart, Frazer Clarke.
Peter Kadiru, the unbeaten German champion, is also being used. He is managed by Klitschko's former aide Boente who retains a strong connection to Joshua's team and now, for the second time, is helping to plot Pulev's downfall.
"Bernd's advice to me was: 'Any heavyweights on the radar, bring them in for sparring, feel them out, get some rounds in'," Ghansa explained.
Joshua has learned from the best how to stay at the top.
Joshua and Klitschko's mighty union has taken them global - they gave a joint speech at Harvard University - but they truly bond when dissecting opponents.
"He has his views," Joshua smiles, admitting he has asked Klitschko's advice about Pulev.
"Pulev vs Klitschko is different to Pulev vs Joshua which is different to Klitschko vs Joshua.
"Klitschko will give me advice on how to deal with Pulev but I have to take it with a pinch of salt because the Pulev that I'm fighting is completely different to the Pulev that he fought."
Like Klitschko, Joshua has endured and overcome his horror show where critics screamed that he could never bounce back.
"Pulev will try to pressure, edge forwards and try to get his counters going over the top," said Joshua's trainer Rob McCracken.
"He throws a good right hand, every now and again a good left hook. He will try to pin you to the ropes. But it's what Anthony does - dictate, control the pace, use his reach, nullify what Pulev is doing."
The way Joshua stops thoughtfully to answer a question is similar to the way Klitschko spoke in 2017 when they were set to be opponents.
"What he possesses," Joshua considers about Pulev, "Hunger and motivation. I've got to take away that motivation and suppress that confidence.
"That's how you beat somebody, by breaking their soul."
There are souls of heavyweight boxers that remained in the Austrian Alps, returning weaker and more vulnerable from their chastening experience with Klitschko.
Joshua was not one of them and, with strength still being passed down from the former champion to the current, he is channelling Klitschko as he prepares to dispatch Pulev.
Watch Joshua vs Pulev on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office, from 6pm. Book it via your Sky remote or book it online here. Even if you aren't a Sky TV subscriber you can book and watch it here.
