Life is good for Anthony Joshua at the moment, in fact it’s extremely good. The Watford born 27-year-old boasts a 100% record from 19 fights, following an epic and engrossing comeback-off-the-canvas victory over Wladimir Klitschko, which earned him a fruity £15 million as he added the WBA and IBO belts to the IBF title.
Less than a fortnight later Britain’s superstar boxer graced his presence at Salford's Lowry Theatre, which has previously housed famous sporting faces such as Man Utd icon Eric Cantona.
Joshua is, of course, no stranger to these parts, having retained his IBF heavyweight title five months ago in a third round TKO of Eric Molina, while back in 2014 he dispatched of Konstantin Airich (both in Manchester). However, he admits that a return to Manchester is unlikely after selling out Wembley in his last outing.
Not since Lennox Lewis has a British heavyweight enjoyed such a mass public appeal. Everyone wants a piece of Joshua, whether it’s the media, sponsors, celebrities or his adoring, and rapidly growing, fans.
Joshua’s rise has been rapid. In the space of two-and-a-half years he went from making his first professional fight, to winning the IBF heavyweight title, while a couple of weeks ago he became a unified champion after adding a couple more belts to his collection.
The Sportsman fires a question at Joshua:
There was a lengthy delay to proceedings due to travel issues - the in-demand Joshua was reportedly signing shirts in a traffic jam - meaning punters had to sit through a painful auction and some terrible jokes from host Charlie Hale, who in fairness later made amends during the actual interview through his impressive boxing knowledge and general camaraderie with Joshua.
After the gloves, paintings and belts were sold, at long last the eagerly anticipated evening shot into life as soon as Joshua arrived on stage, with the heavyweight champ receiving a roaring welcome from the crowd.
Joshua spoke candidly about his childhood, his love for sports, crediting his immense hunger and determination from an early age as key to his success as a champion.
“I was determined. I would never say I was a boxer until my first fight. I had that hunger and determination. If you’re determined that outweighs talent.
“I don’t feel like the heavyweight champion of the world. But I’ve always trained and tried to carry myself like a champion.”
It was that determination, heart and desire, which helped Joshua haul himself off the canvas to beat Klitschko in London last month.
The bout itself was one of the most transfixing heavyweight duels in recent memory. One which was drenched in drama, soaked in suspense, and played out in-front of a post-war record partisan crowd of 90,000 (Wembley), while millions more around the globe were glued to their television screens as the former sparring partners thrashed it out over 11 riveting rounds.
“The ring was tiny, I thought to myself ‘this is going to be a dust-up’. He has this weird jab style, which was so strong that my arm was just flying around.
“In the fifth round I kind of lost myself a bit. Normally when I hit someone I can pounce on them, and they don’t come back, but he got up - you know when you play Tekken and someone goes down and they come back up like some supersonic beast. This was like that."
“He’s got the ability to hit you once and you’re gone,” added Joshua. However, the punch that knocked Joshua down, didn’t knock him out, which could well have been the outcome against many other men in the division. In the end Joshua weathered the storm and bounced back, forcing a TKO in the 11th.
Joshua reveals what he said to Klitschko during the 6th round:
So, what’s next for the man who is currently clutching hold of three heavyweight belts?
“I’m going to fight for the next 10 years. I’ll always step up the the challenge and bring exciting fights to Britain.”
The tantalising prospect of a mouth-watering re-match with Klitschko is on the cards, should the Ukrainian activate the release clause, with rumours of a duel in Cardiff in October.
However, it goes without saying that the fight everybody wants to see is Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury, although we may have to wait until next year.
“We need to fight. We have to because in every era of boxers these are the fights that stand out. It’s silly not to.
“There’s no way I can go through my career without fighting Fury. It’s just a matter of when. He’s on his road to coming back and I’m not going anywhere so we’ll definitely collide when the time is right.
“Love him or hate him he’s a massive name in boxing. He adds a certain flavour to the mix. It will be a slugfest. It won’t be one of those boring fights. We will go to war and let the best man win.”
One potential option is another duel with his old foe Dillian Whyte, with whom he knocked out in the seventh round back in December 2012, which remains the only blotch on Whyte’s 21 fight record.
“Believe it or not that fight for me outweighs the Klitschko fight. The tension we had. Me from the South, him from the North. If he beat me I wouldn’t have heard the end of it. It wasn’t about boxing, or the British title, it was about me and him - pure pride.
“I lifted Dylan off the floor. It was sweet. That’s the danger of the heavyweight division - we are powerful boys. Chat shit get banged!”
Other potential bouts against WBC champion Deontay Wilder, WBO champion Joseph Parker, and Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, however one man he won’t be fighting is friend Tony Bellew:
“There’s a lot of respect and it wouldn’t be a fight that everybody would want to see because of the respect that we have for each other. There has to be a bit of needle and competitive blood when it comes to boxing.”
All in all it was an insightful and engaging evening in the presence of one of sport's freshest superstar. It’s just a shame about the frustrating delay and the fact that more people weren’t there to see it, which can be blamed on the perplexingly minimal publicity the event itself received.
