Thursday 29 April 2021 10:27, UK
From retirements to mandatory challengers. From Vegas to Cardiff. The timeline that will result in Anthony Joshua vs Carlos Takam...
January 29, 2017 - An innocuous-looking fight in Macao sets the ball rolling. Carlos Takam KOs Marcin Rekowski to win the IBF inter-continental title and improve his ranking with the organisation.
April 28 - Kubrat Pulev, already the mandatory challenger to the IBF belt, out-points Kevin Johnson (a 2015 victim of Joshua's).
There's only one fight out there, the biggest fight in the world and everyone knows that. It is the heavyweights, it is me and AJ, no one else. I wonder what people would be saying today if Klitschko had done him in the sixth.
May 7 - Pulev's promoter Kalle Sauerland reiterates their right to face Joshua, saying: "It's a fight that we were offered before and turned down because we knew we were mandatory. It's key that we have that fight. It's a fight that [Pulev] has earned."
May 11 - Klitschko is still considering whether to accept a rematch against Joshua. Promoter Eddie Hearn says: "Cardiff, Las Vegas, China and Dubai are all in play."
June 7 - Joshua-Klitschko II is approved by the IBF. Pulev had objected but accepted the condition that he will receive his shot immediately afterwards.
June 17 - Takam KOs Ivica Bacurin (a former opponent of Dillian Whyte and Tony Bellew) in Italy.
June 29 - As Vegas plans intensify for Joshua-Klitschko II, Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza says: "It would be the biggest heavyweight Vegas fight in probably a couple of decades, so we would love to host it."
September 5 - Joshua vs Pulev, his mandatory challenger, is confirmed for October 28 at Cardiff's Principality Stadium. Meanwhile, unbeknown to most, stand-by opponent Takam begins a training camp.
October 17 - Johnny Nelson said: "I was watching 'AJ' train a few weeks ago and it was all specifically in preparation for Pulev, the height, the movement, the shot and his onslaught - now he has to change all that."
With Pulev it wasn't about whipping him around the body, it was about staying off the line and boxing down the middle. Carlos is different - he can trade down the middle. My speed will beat his combinations. A good way to beat Carlos is to take his body out, that's what Alexander Povetkin did to him. I look at each individual fighters, and what their strengths are.
