Anthony Joshua - Alexander Povetkin

March 31, 2018 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (the capital of Wales ), a boxing evening took place, during which 8 fights took place (5 of them were the title ones) ^[3] . The main fight of the evening was a duel between the previously undefeated world champions Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KO) and Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KO) for the world heavyweight boxing champion WBA Super, IBF , IBO , owned by Joshua, and the WBO World Championship title owned by Parker. The fight went with the advantage of Joshua, but at the same time all 12 rounds allotted to him lasted, after which Anthony Joshua won by unanimous decision with a score of 118-110; 118-110; 119-119. In the samethe undercard went between the Russian boxer Alexander Povetkin (33-1, 23 KO) and the Englishman David Price (22-4, 18 KO) for the titles of the intercontinental WBA champion and the international WBO champion, which belonged to Povetkin. The fight lasted five rounds of the twelve planned. In the third round, the rivals exchanged knockdowns , and in the fifth Povetkin knocked out Price ^[4] .

Even before these fights, on March 29, Joshua's promoter - Eddie Hearn - stated that the Briton should hold a duel against Alexander Povetkin in 2018 ^[5] . On April 3, the promoter of the Russian boxer Andrei Ryabinsky announced that there was an agreement between him and Hearn, according to which the fight would take place before the end of the year ^[6] . On April 6, Ryabinsky wrote on his Twitter page that Povetkin became the official contender for the WBA super-world title held by Joshua, 30 days were allocated for negotiations, and 150 for organizing the battle ^[7] . In turn, Joshua said he wants to fight against WBC world champion Deontay Wilder , but he did not want to lose the belt of the super-world champion according to WBA. The best option, according to Joshua, would be to postpone the battle with Povetkin to the end of 2018 or to 2019 ^{[8] [9]} . On April 13, the British boxer said that, most likely, either Povetkin or the American Jarrell Miller (21-0-1, 18 KO) could become his next rival ^[10] .

On May 15, 2018, Ryabinsky tweeted that the battle of Joshua vs. Povetkin will be held soon in London ^[11] . Towards the end of May, negotiations between Joshua and Wilder began to come to a standstill due to the fact that the American did not want to fight in the UK . The most likely candidate for his replacement was Alexander Povetkin, finally the situation with the future rival Joshua should have become clear within the next two weeks ^[12] . On June 26, the World Boxing Association (WBA) ordered Anthony Joshua to sign a fight contract with Alexander Povetkin ^[13] . On the same day, Shelley Finkel (manager of Deontay Wilder) in an interview with World Boxing News announced that he had received a letter from Hearn informing that Joshua’s next fight would take place against Povetkin, and that the fight with Wilder could take place after him in April 2019 ^{[ 14]} .

On July 16, the date and venue of the match were approved. The fight was scheduled for September 22, 2018 and was supposed to take place at Wembley Stadium in London ^[15] . July 18 in New York was the first duel of views between Povetkin and Joshua ^[16] .

On September 21, 2018, the weigh-in before the fight took place. Joshua weighed 111.8 kilograms, and Povetkin 100.7 kilograms ^[17] .

Battle Preparation

On July 29, 2018, it became known that the former world champion in the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO versions, as well as in the version of The Ring boxing magazine Vladimir Klitschko (64-5, 54 KO), who lost in his last fight in April 2017 TKO Anthony Joshua will be his sparring partner during preparations for the fight against Alexander Povetkin ^[18] . The two other sparring partners of Anthony Joshua were German boxer Agit Kabayel (18-0, 13 KOs), who performs in heavyweight, and Briton of Congolese origin Martin Bacole Ilunga (11-0, 8 KOs), who also performs in heavyweight and at that time owned the IBO Continental title ^[19] .

I completely concentrated on the upcoming event. My plans are to conduct a very aggressive fight, which will show everyone my style. I'm going to just go into the ring and knock Povetkin. Just like trying to do in battles with any other opponent. Maybe I will impose a hellhouse on him, or maybe we will beautifully box. I am a universal fighter and can accept any course of events that an opponent will try to impose, but my task is to knock Povetkin out.

- Anthony Joshua before the fight with Povetkin ^[1]

According to promoter Joshua Eddie Hearn, the Englishman was poorly prepared for the fight with Povetkin, he was injured, and a week before the fight he fell ill with ARVI ^[20] .

The following professional boxers were sparring partners of Povetkin: Ukrainians Vladislav Sirenko (9-0, 8 KO) and Alexander Zakhozhiy (8-0, 6 KO), Croat Petar Milas (12-0, 9 KO), Briton Daniel Dubois (8 -0, 8 KO), Polish boxer of Nigerian origin Izuagbe Ugonoh (18-1, 15 KOs), as well as Ukrainian amateur boxer Vladimir Katsuk ^{[21] [22]} . In addition, the offer to become a sparring partner of the Russian was received by the British professional boxer, silver medalist of the 2016 Olympics Joseph Joyce (5-0, 5 KO), but he refused ^[23] .

Bookmaker Bet

According to bookmakers, the favorite in the match was Anthony Joshua. In various bookmakers, bets on his victory were accepted with a coefficient from 1.06 to 1.11. Bets on Alexander Povetkin were accepted with a coefficient of 6.5 to 9.55. The odds on a draw were twenty-six. The bet on Povetkin’s victory by knockout was taken with a coefficient of 10, while the coefficient on knockout from Joshua was 1.36 ^{[24] [25]} .

The duel was attended by 80,000 people ^[31] . The first at 22 hours 7 minutes (London time, UTC + 1 ) Alexander Povetkin entered the ring, Joshua followed him at 22 hours 10 minutes. The fight began at 22 hours 17 minutes.

In the first round, Joshua tried to work as jabs (direct punches), while Povetkin relied on punctuated punches and combinations. A few seconds before the end of the round, “Russian Knight” struck a combination of punches, two of which - the left hook (side kick) and the right uppercut (bottom kick) - managed, according to Sport.ru commentator, to “swing” Joshua. In the second round, Povetkin seized the initiative and began to go to the middle and near distances, while Joshua practically did not strike, but mainly retreated. After one of the attacks of the Russian boxer, it became noticeable that he had broken his nose to the Briton. In the first half of the third round, Anthony Joshua launched a series of power strikes, but Povetkin was able to defend against them. The British boxer also began to work more actively with direct, non-accentuated punches. Povetkin was waiting for the right moments and attacked. For these actions, some commentators compared Povetkin to American boxer Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KO).

In the fourth round, Povetkin had a cut over his left eyebrow. His pace of warfare began to decline, indicating that the Russian boxer began to get tired. Joshua punched jabs more and more often and “stuck” in clinches . In the fifth round, Povetkin continued to work in close combat, delivering punched punches, but could not overcome Joshua's defense. Joshua himself worked with direct blows and tried not to let Povetkin into close range. By the 6th round, the Russian was noticeably tired, even slowed down his pace, which allowed the British boxer to take control of the fight. He began to puncture accented jabs on his retreat and worked more actively in close combat.

A minute and 23 seconds before the end of the seventh round, Joshua, breaking the right jab into the jaw of the enemy, shocked the tired Povetkin. Noticing this, he went on to finish, and as a result, "Russian Knight" was knocked down . Povetkin managed to get up and after the countdown the referee tried to continue the fight, but the Briton again went on to finish, and Alexander was no longer able to respond to his blows. Steve Gray (match referee) stopped the fight. Coach Povetkin Ivan Kirpa gave the go-ahead to the referee that his ward could not continue the fight, and a few seconds before the fight stopped Joshua struck a series of powerful blows that led to the fall of Povetkin immediately after the fight stopped.

At the time the fight stopped, the score on the referee's notes was: 59-55, 58-56 and 58-56 - in favor of Joshua ^[32] .

He did not shock me in the first round. He hit a deuce, and I just lost my balance. That is, I did not lose consciousness, and I did not need a minute to recover from this. Yes, it was a good blow, he broke my nose, but nothing more. I had to accept this and return to the battle. Povetkin could hurt me. He is strong, he has serious blows - I won’t lie. In addition, it is fast for this weight. If he had cleanly hit with certain blows, this could have ended badly for me. I think he would be a problem for so many heavyweights.

- Anthony Joshua after the fight with Povetkin ^[33]

Impact Statistics

Strokes total

Jabs

Power bumps

Referee Notes

In an interview after the match, Anthony Joshua announced that he intends to hold the next fight with the one whom the fans will choose ^[42] . He ran a survey on his Twitter page, which was attended by 487,000 people. According to the survey, WBC world champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KO) won 53% of the vote, former champion in WBA , IBF , WBO and IBO , as well as The Ring boxing magazine Tyson Fury (27-0, 19 KO) - 42% of the vote, and Dillian White (24-1, 17 KO) - 5% of the vote ^[43] . In mid-October, Eddie Hearn announced that negotiations on the organization of the battle of Joshua-Wilder "have moved forward" ^[44] . However, on December 1, 2018 in Los Angeles , a duel took place between two undefeated boxers, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, which ended in a draw. After that, the WBC authorized a rematch between Wilder and Fury ^[45] , and Joshua-Wilder's alleged bout was postponed ^[46] .

October 15, 2018, Andrei Ryabinsky announced that Povetkin will hold one to three more matches in the professional ring, after which he will end his career. He also noted that, most likely, this year the Russian will no longer hold fights ^[47] . However, Povetkin himself said that he was not going to end his career in the near future ^[48] .

On December 22, 2018, a rematch took place in London between British heavyweight boxers Dillian White and Derek Chisora . The fight was held with a slight advantage Chisora, but in the 11th round, White knocked him out and immediately after that he called Anthony Joshua to the fight ^[49] . Joshua accepted the challenge, but White claimed that his fee, which Joshua had offered him (£ 5,000,000) for this fight, was too small and refused the fight. ^[50]

After Wilder, Fury and White refused to fight Joshua, the fight, which was scheduled to take place on April 13, 2019 at Wembley Stadium, was canceled. After the cancellation of this fight, the most likely opponent of Joshua was the undefeated American Jarrell Miller (23-0-1, 20 KO). The Joshua-Miller fight was supposed to take place on June 1, 2019 at the Madison Square Garden sports complex in New York , USA ^[51] , this was officially announced in February 2019 ^[52] . However, in mid-April 2019, it became known that Jarrell Miller failed several control doping tests in a row, and was refused a boxing license, which made him lose the opportunity to fight for champion titles against Joshua ^[53] . After the incident with Miller, the Joshua team found him a replacement in the face of another American - Andy Ruiz Jr. (32-1) ^[54] , who in a duel with Joshua, June 1, 2019, won by TKO in the 7th round ^[55] .