Anthony Joshua, who may one day rank alongside Lennox Lewis as Britain?s greatest heavyweight, admits he ?needs a thrill? to inspire him on a journey that could have a decade and a dozen fights yet to run. His dilemma, however, will be finding opponents credible enough to accompany him.
The reality is the unbeaten 28-year-old WBA, IBF and IBO champion is operating in a market place of limited resources at the highest level. Boxing logic and business sense suggest the next defence of his belts will be against the unbeaten but dull WBO champion, Joseph Parker, in the spring, leading on to a high-summer unification fight that the division and the sport need most, against the American Deontay Wilder, who holds the WBC title. Beyond that there is not a lot of excitement ? apart from the possibility that semi-retired Tyson Fury will one day rediscover his love for boxing. Anthony Joshua made to work but retains crown against Carlos Takam
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?You know what?? Joshua asked rhetorically in the small hours of Sunday morning after getting rid of his latest challenger, the 36-year-old Carlos Takam, ?I can?t imagine what it would be like in, say, my 38th fight and doing this over and over again [as Wilder will do in Brooklyn on Saturday night, against Bermane Stiverne]. Is he going through the motions? Boxing will live on after me but I need to have a thrill ? and the fans need it, too.?
The 20th successive win of his short professional career, another stoppage, left the inordinately tough Frenchman and late replacement for the injured mandatory challenger, Kubrat Pulev, rocking on unsteady feet in the 10th round, blood seeping heavily from wounds around both eyes ? and a near-capacity audience of 78,000 wanting more as the referee, Phil Edwards, stepped between them to bring the entertainment to a conclusion.
Takam, who went the distance with Parker and took the excellent Russian Alexander Povetkin to 10 rounds before being stopped, soaked up a steady diet of heavy blows from the second round onwards and protested unconvincingly at the end that he could continue as the left hooks and right crosses pounded into his unprotected head.
The fans, not all of them hardcore, craved a repeat of the drama Joshua produced at Wembley in April, when he got off the floor to knock out the most dominant champion of the millennium, Wladimir Klitschko, sending the 41-year-old Ukrainian into retirement.
Klitschko, who declined a rematch, was the fading representative of the previous era, having been outpointed by Fury in 2015, dethroned by the irresistible king of the new generation. It was an almost impossible act for Joshua to replicate.
What fans got instead at the Principality Stadium on Saturday night was a solid rather than spectacular performance from their hero. Joshua was thoroughly professional, guarding against complacency as his dangerous, if lightly regarded, opponent swung vigorously but with limited success. Takam, for all his protestations, did not win a round.
?I had to put the Klitschko fight to one side,? Joshua said. ?If I didn?t do that, it could become a curse. There are always a few things I could do better but I?m used to dealing with guys of my own height. [Joshua is 6ft 6in, Takam just under 6ft 2in]. It was a bit tricky but I got there in the end.
?I could see he was hurt a few times,? he said of Takam, who briefly touched down in the second and was cut from the fourth round. ?But I did not want to go steaming in. I knew that he could last into the 10th or 11th rounds and land with one sweet haymaker. Rob [McCracken, his long-time trainer] said after round eight: ?Don?t get carried away. He is waiting for one big shot.??
As for the muted crowd response, Joshua said: ?I understand. People wanted to see him unconscious but his eyes were nearly hanging off at the end. Everyone loves a winner, though, and I can?t afford to mess up. I need the discipline. It helps me mature.?
It is obvious the only active fighter who will lift him back to the level of danger and expectation he experienced against Klitschko is Wilder, the undefeated knockout artist whom Joshua?s promoter, Eddie Hearn, wants to match with the south London heavyweight Dillian Whyte.
Whyte, knocked out by Joshua in seven rounds two years ago, overcame a brief wobble in the second round to thump the 33-year-old Finn Robert Helenius into meek passivity over 12 rounds on the undercard. He awaits Wilder?s response to the invitation to fight him at the O2 Arena in London on 3 February.
The American must first get past Stiverne, the only opponent among 38 to go the distance with him and from whom he won the title in January 2015. That he is giving the 38-year-old Haitian-Canadian a second chance underlines the paucity of challengers in the division.
What it will inevitably lead to is a match against Joshua. Hearn wants the fight in London, naturally, where it would again fill Wembley to its 90,000 capacity. ?The big money in boxing right now is here,? Hearn said. ?In the future? Probably America.?
That suggests the possibility of an enduring rivalry between the two best heavyweights in the world. Until boxers such as the Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce or the untested Frank Warren prospect Daniel Dubois reach fruition, the options are limited.
