British heavyweight boxing star Joshua knocks out Klitschko
|
| British boxer Anthony Joshua, right, fights Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko for Joshua's IBF and the vacant WBA Super World and IBO heavyweight titles at Wembley stadium in London, Saturday, April 29, 2017. Joshua won with an 11th round stoppage. |
LONDON
(AP) -- Anthony Joshua wasn't wrong when he raised his hands in victory
after knocking Wladimir Klitschko down in the fifth round of what
looked like a one-sided heavyweight title fight. He was just celebrating
too early.
The rookie mistake allowed
Klitschko to rally, nearly taking the lead as the two 6-foot-6 men went
to the 11th round - four rounds longer than any Joshua fight had ever
gone. That's when Joshua unleashed a brutal uppercut that spun Klitschko
around, leading to a win that set off British celebrations in Wembley
Stadium and beyond Saturday night and cemented the 27-year-old as
boxing's new superstar.
Rounds 5 and 6
featured some of the best heavyweight action since Mike Tyson, Evander
Holyfield and Lennox Lewis - the latter two sitting ringside - ruled the
division.
Klitschko who had barely thrown any
power punches before the knockdown, came back to make the end of the
fifth round interesting and knocked Joshua down in the next round.
With
an entire country screaming for him, Joshua - who had knocked all his
previous opponents out by the end of the seventh round - looked tired.
But he saved his best for the late rounds, particularly the uppercut
that will be a YouTube moment for decades.
Klitschko
didn't fall down after the uppercut, but Joshua was all over the
stunned former champ and dropped him with a left hook. Klitschko got up
only to take even more punishment. Joshua knocked Klitschko down again
and was landing punches to his head on the ropes when referee David
Fields moved in to stop the bout late in the 11th round.
"When
you go to the trenches, that's when you find out who you really are,"
Joshua said. "In this small little ring here, there's nowhere to hide."
The biggest heavyweight title fight in more than a decade had a little something for everyone, and Joshua finished off in style.
"As I said from the get-go, it will be a boxing classic and the best man will win," Joshua said.
Klitschko's
rally was inspiring, starting soon after he was knocked down in the
fifth. By the end of the round, it was Klitschko pummeling a tired
Joshua.
Joshua was still feeling the effect of
those punches when he was dropped by a right hand in the sixth round.
Klitschko began piling up rounds and it seemed like the savvy Ukrainian
would quiet the hometown fans, until Joshua turned things around with
that vicious right uppercut.
"If you don't take part, you're going to fail," Joshua said. "Just give it a go and you never know the outcome."
Joshua
was up 96-93 and 95-93 on two scorecards, while Klitschko was ahead
95-93 on the third going into the final round. The Associated Press had
it 94-94.
Klitschko, who reigned over the
heavyweight division for a decade, was fighting both Joshua and Father
Time at the age of 41. He looked to be overmatched in the early rounds,
but fought his best after he was knocked down.
It
was anyone's fight when Joshua landed the uppercut that proved
decisive, much to the delight of his countrymen who packed England's
national stadium for the highly anticipated bout.
"As
I said I'm not perfect but I'm trying," said Joshua, the 2012 Olympic
gold medalist who was fighting for only the 19th time as a pro.
Joshua
had never been beyond seven rounds, and it looked like he might be
running out of gas as he tried to find his legs following the knockdown
in the sixth. Klitschko, in his 29th world title fight, seemed to be
taking the advantage in the later rounds, until the uppercut sent him
spinning across the ring.
"It was really sad I
didn't make it tonight," Klitschko said. "I was planning to do it. It
didn't work. But all
respect to Anthony."
Joshua
defended his heavyweight titles and his undefeated record in a bout
that lived up to its billing as the b
est matchup after a long drought in
the heavyweight division. Already a hero in his native England, he may
become one worldwide.
Joshua said before the
bout that it was just two men in the ring, and nothing more than that.
But it was clear by the crowd's reaction as he came back to win that it
was a lot more to many fans.
It was a battle of massive heavyweights, with both standing 6-foot-6. Joshua weighed 250.1 pounds to 240.5 for Klitschko.
Klitschko
fell to 64-5 in a long career that began in 1996 after he won the
Olympic gold in Atlanta. In what may have been his last fight, he was
beaten by the Olympic champion from the 2012 Olympics in London.
