#Hell let loose free weekend pro

Joshua, in the words of his then trainer Robert McCracken, “found the punches” when he needed to – and never looked better than when he was unleashing a salvo of power shots aiming to knock Klitschko’s block off. That night, against a Wlad who looked sharper and lighter on his feet than he had against Tyson Fury, Joshua had made errors and almost gassed himself out trying to finish the fight in the fifth round when he first knocked Klitschko down.īut he also showed far fewer signs of the overthinking and hesitancy that have plagued his fights since. In none of those fights did AJ quite show signs that he had built on the imperfect but hugely promising win over Klitschko. Then came the shock KO defeat to Andy Ruiz, redemptive domination in the rematch – albeit with the asterisk that Ruiz had clearly trained in his kitchen – a reasonably solid win over a 39-year-old Kubrat Pulev, then the defeat by Usyk.

The 10 round KO of Carlos Takam was a slog, outboxing Joseph Parker was disciplined but uneventful, while Alexander Povetkin caught AJ too hard for comfort before he was taken out.

#Hell let loose free weekend pro

The 11 rounds with a heavyweight of Klitschko’s class seemed a more valuable learning experience than all of his 18 pro fights put together: an ideal finishing school for a champion whose every fight was now going to be a sold-out showpiece attraction. But, outside of a seven-round domestic scrap with Dillian Whyte, had hardly faced any challenge. He’d also faced adversity: a heavy knockdown in the sixth and then rounds under Klitschko’s control after that, before Joshua regrouped and turned the tables to win.īefore that night AJ had reached 18-0 (18 KOs) and won a world title belt.

Joshua had won by KO in scintillating fashion against the best opponent he’d ever fought – and in front of a Carl-Froch-ego-destroying 90,000 at Wembley.

Joshua’s victory over Klitschko remains the best performance of his career to dateįive years ago, in April 2017, it could hardly have gone better.