London: Britain’s Anthony Joshua retained his world heavyweight titles by inflicting the first stoppage defeat of Alexander Povetkin’s professional career with a ruthless seventh-round finish at Wembley Stadium.
A previously close contest turned in Joshua’s favour decisively when he sent the Russian crashing to the canvas with a straight right hand and left hook Saturday. Povetkin gamely beat the count but Joshua piled in before referee Steve Gray stopped the contest at one minute and 59 seconds of the seventh round.
Victory saw Joshua extend his unbeaten professional record to 22 wins from 22 fights, with 21 knockouts, in front of a raucous home crowd.
“Povetkin is a very tough challenger and he proved it tonight. I realised he was strong to the head but weak to the body. I got my knockout streak back, I found my right hand again,” Joshua said after the bout.
Joshua, 28, had a significant height and reach advantage of several inches over Povetkin. Friday’s weigh-in also confirmed a significant size difference, with Joshua tipping the scales at 17 stone eight pounds (111.5 kilogrammes) compared to Povetkin’s 15st 12lbs.
This fight saw Joshua returning to the scene of arguably his greatest triumph, an 11th-round stoppage of former champion Wladimir Klitschko last year. Klitschko was the only man to have previously inflicted a blemish on Povetkin’s now 36-fight record, with a points win back in 2013.
The first round ended with Povetkin, stooping low, rocking Joshua with a right uppercut that drew blood from the champion’s nose. Joshua was certainly being tested in the opening exchanges, although he did start to respond with some single-punch jabs.
And come the fourth round, Povetkin had a significant cut above the left eye. Nevertheless, at the end of the sixth he was still in the contest only for Joshua to seal victory barely two minutes later.