World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Saturday night retained all three of his belts by thwarting the game challenge of Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev inside nine rounds at London’s Wembley Arena.
To the cheers of the 1,000 fans allowed inside the venue, and with Floyd Mayweather watching at ringside, Joshua knocked down Pulev twice in the third round and twice more in the ninth to keep an all-British unification battle with Tyson Fury well on track for 2021.
The fight, Joshua’s 25th as a professional, began slowly, with both fighters using the opening round to test one another’s control of distance.
It then exploded in a dramatic third round when Joshua stood his ground and let his right hand go, landing it in the form of a cross, which hurt and later dropped Pulev, and also as an uppercut, which had the same impact. Legs unsteady, but spitting defiance, Pulev seemed on the brink of being stopped.
Yet somehow he stuck in there. Better than that, Pulev (28-2), recovered well enough in the fourth to win the round, gambling now with right crosses of his own.
Ultimately, though, it was Joshua (24-1), who had the edge in power and this showed in the ninth when he once again stood in range with Pulev. Uppercuts this time did the trick, a series of them dropping Pulev to his knees, before a final right cross left Pulev flat on his back and gave referee Deon Dwarte of South Africa no option but to wave the fight over.
Now, with Pulev duly beaten, the talk is of Joshua and Fury meeting next year in a heavyweight blockbuster, likely to take place in Saudi Arabia. Joshua and Fury own all four of the major heavyweight titles and have in the past 12 months clearly established themselves as the top two fighters in the division.
Earlier, Hackney’s Lawrence Okolie had been hoping to become WBO world cruiserweight champion but, following the withdrawal of original opponent Krzysztof Glowacki, had to settle for taking out his frustrations on Nikodem Jezewski, who he stopped inside two rounds.
Okolie, with a 15-0 record, was quick to drop Jezewski with a body shot in round one before making a greater impression on his Polish opponent with a straight right cross, which caught Jezewski (19-1-1) on the temple and put him on the floor for a second time.
Jezewski, who had fought outside Poland only twice before, was clearly overwhelmed, both by the occasion and Okolie’s power, and was finally stopped 1 min 45 sec into the second round.
A decent heavyweight fight between Martin Bakole (16-1) and Sergey Kuzmin, (15-2), ended with Bakole taking a unanimous decision (98-92, 97-93, 96-94).
The two fighters entered the ring with almost identical records and had previously come unstuck against fringe contender Michael Hunter.
Together, though, their styles blended well and they were happy to trade power shots from close range, with Bakole’s jab the difference.
Also at heavyweight, Hughie Fury was uncharacteristically aggressive in a messy fight against tough Pole Mariusz Wach, winning by scores of 100-90 (twice) and 99-91 after 10 rounds.
With straight punches at a premium, Fury (25-3), mauled his way to victory against Wach (36-7) and admirably fought with a bad cut by his left eye.
Northampton’s Kieron Conway (16-1-1), dominated substitute opponent Macaulay McGowan (14-2-1), at super-welterweight, taking a unanimous decision by scores of 100-90, 100-89 (twice).
McGowan, a big character with an even bigger heart, kept coming forward and applying pressure but was outclassed throughout by Conway’s cleaner work on the back foot and was put on the floor in round eight.
In something of a surprise, unheralded Jamie Stewart seemed fortunate to come away with a draw against Albania’s Florian Marku at welterweight.
Southpaw Marku (7-0-1), a big talker with a point to prove, started the bout strongly, dropping Stewart with a body shot in the second round, and won the majority of rounds on work-rate alone.
An inability to finish, however, came back to haunt Marku, with Stewart (2-0-1), gutsy in the final couple of rounds, somehow doing enough on referee Marcus McDonnell’s scorecard to earn a draw.
McDonnell, the sole scorer, delivered a card of 76-76 at the bout’s conclusion, much to the consternation of Marku and those watching at ringside.
In the first bout of the evening, a fast start by super-bantamweight Qais Ashfaq (9-1) earned a first-round knockdown against Bristol’s Ashley Lane (14-10-2), as well as a second knockdown in the third, before a sustained attack secured a stoppage in the fourth.