Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-04-29, nice fight with a spectacular finish: Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko gets three stars.The undefeated 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist and current IBF world champion Anthony Joshua entered this fight with a perfect boxing record of 18-0-0 (18 KOs=100%) and he is ranked as the No.1 heavyweight in the world. ‘AJ’ fought three times last year winning over Charles Martin (=Martin vs Joshua), Dominic Breazeale (=Joshua vs Breazeale) and Eric Molina (=Joshua vs Molina).
His opponent, the 1996 Olympic super-Hw gold medalist and former Wbo, Ibf, Wba, Ibo champion Wladimir Klitschko (he is 41 years old, 14 years older than Joshua), has an official record of 64-4-0 (53 KOs=83%) but he is not ranked as he hasn’t fought since November 28, 2015 when he was defeated by Tyson Fury (=Klitschko vs Fury); before this fight he had beat Bryant Jennings (=Klitschko vs Jennings). Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko is valid for the WBA, IBF and vacant IBO World heavyweight titles. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2017-04-29
Where: Wembley Stadium, London, United Kingdom
Division: heavyweight (over 200 lbs, 90.7 kg)
Title: WBA, IBF and vacant IBO World heavyweight titles
Joshua’s previous fight: Anthony Joshua vs Eric Molina
Klitschko’s previous fight: Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury
Joshua’s next fight: Anthony Joshua vs Carlos Takam
Joshua vs Klitschko Fight Video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Official video
Official highlights
One of the greatest heavyweight fight I’ve seen at this high level :)
bothn like pac-may
Couldn’t agree more, Matt! Pure excitement. For a while there, it even looked like we might have to watch Grandpa Klitschko for the next 10 years…but no, thank god! The king is dead, long live the king.
Finally a HW fight worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS1mMMtT7Dw&list=PL0wP7ybb2nT7jVCtL_HZ5P4R66i9f14je&index=7
Great HW fight! This is very good for boxing!
After Klitschko’s latest “performance” against Fury, I was very surprised by the way he faced the challenge this time. I was on the edge of my seat from round 5 to 11 and this has not happened many time for me watching a Klitschko fight. Hats off to both fighters who showed incredible tenacity.
Yes! An absolute thriller where it could have been a snoozer. Credit to Klit for fighting bravely for his life — but greater credit and gratitude goes to AJ for sending him into retirement. The HW division is now wide open for business, and I can’t wait to see Joshua-Wilder.
why would he retire after that? he had a really long layoff and still fought to that level. he didn’t look old even at 41
I would see him fight Fury again, if the gypsy king ever gets back into fighting shape.
i’d like to see him fight Chagaev for the vacant WBA title since Browne got popped and should be stripped. it would get Klitschko right to the top and have a title
It seems like Klitschko called for a rematch, but AJ called out Fury, as I read. I’d rather see AJ vs Wilder too. :)
There is a rematch clause. Klitschko wants to think about it before exercising it.
Vitali in my opinion at peak was stronger than the brother and the current Joshua. Wladimir has never been considered a great chin. I am a bit disappointed by Joshua as Wladimir is really in decline and Tyson Fury beat him more easily. The potential of Joshua anyway is out of discussion: they will have to work on his boxe to not run out of gas anymore like that. When I saw him with the mouth open I thought that he had punched himself out and the match was compromised. Instead of getting the rematch clause Wladimir should … train him :-)
I remember him having the same problems at the early stages of his career. With a good work considering that Tyson Fury is currently out of the game Joshua can be dominant.
Nice comment blackbird, I get you. But the money Wladimir would make with a rematch is still great, although it would certainly not be a 50/50 split like the first fight. But on a sports point of view, you are right :)
Matt
The best man has won. Joshua is still growing and wladimir doesnt need money. If there is a rematch wlad gets knocked out in 3 rounds. I think that we have seen all in this match. Had it lasted 12 rounds, It would hve been different.
Olivier
Style makes matches. I agree that joshua is different than klitschko and for Fury would be a different story. I cant tell the story though: Fury has made klitschko and chisora appear like amateurs. Ofc against joshua anybody can be sent to sleep in any moment. After klitschko fury i already said that Fury could have been in trouble against joshua and wilder as they are tall and can find hard shots.
I really hope he will be back and in good health. people hate him bit I find him great: i want to ear him singing in front of 90k people next :-)
Oh! Don’t get me wrong Blackbird, I like Fury too, and that’s to my surprise! Usually, I prefer fighters with a slick style. To me, Fury’s style is so incongruous to say the less, but somehow intriguing. For the singing… well, that was awkward! One of my favorite moment was when he went face-to-face in the making of the fight with Klitschko, hosted by Kellerman I guess it was.. Man, the answers he gave on that show made me laugh so much! Thanks to our friend Arjay Cee for linking me this one.
Haha, that was fun, wasn’t it? Fury is a total character. I like “incongruous” to describe his ring style, especially given his size.
When I re-watched Fury-Klitschko (in a fit of masochism) what I saw was how many micro-adjustments he makes. Advances — feints — backsteps — lateral jitters and wiggles. He looks like an animation with frames missing!
Unless he can get into the best shape of his life and soon, I would have to heavily favor AJ. But a fit, determined Fury would make for a really good fight.
Very interesting points there blackbird. I agree that Vitali at his best was better than his brother. And yes, Joshua was a bit exposed.
Fury couldn’t fight Joshua with the same approach he had against Klitschko, simply because Joshua would force him into a higher pace. With a faster tempo, I don’t know how Fury would react. Also, Joshua has more variety in his répertoire of shots than Klitschko. On the other hand, Fury has the size advantage, the unorthodox/odd style and he’s always full of confidence. I believe they both possess the same kind of speed but I have to give a small edge to Joshua for his craftiness. All that being said, it would certainly be a very intriguing fight for sure!
Agree completely, Olivier.
AJ has the edge in power over Fury, too. If Steve Cunningham could drop Tyson, I expect AJ could stop him….all things being equal.
Instead of getting the rematch clause Wladimir should … train him :-)
Haha, great idea! You’re absolutely right. Emmanuel Steward effectively gave Wladimir a new set of lungs.
For Joshua, I think stamina might be less of an issue against others. He had extra pressure on him because he’d sparred with Klit many times, knew the risks, and had to slay his elder. It was a big step up — one, arguably, that vaults him far ahead of Deontay Wilder in experience. But Wilder, for all his faults, has that big hand… This is the fight I’d most like to see in the division.
He did look better than I recall seeing him in two dozen or so fights, including his more adventurous youthful days. But that is also a way of acknowledging that he really stunk out the joint often. Grab and lean, one-two, grab and lean: we didn’t call him Clinchko for nothing.
I think he’ll retire because he can’t reach the pinnacle any more. He could certainly go on to be second best, clearing out everyone beneath Joshua. I doubt that’s in his heart. I tip my hat to him for a dominant career but I did not enjoy his work.
it’s just my opinion but i think Klitschko has something to prove that he is/was a top 10 p4p HW cause the era he’s fought in s*cked. in this new era of Joshua, Whyte, Wilder, Parker, Ruiz, Fury he could put a stamp on it. he’s seems to still have the desire too. i think he could be Parrker, Wilder and Ruiz
Klit knew if decision will lose in Wembley that’s why he risked in 11 round hoped Joshua is tired and has no power to ko him but was so wrong bet regrets for this and prefers has lost by decision.
Looking at the judges scorecards, they all seemed fair to me. One judge had Klitschko ahead by 2 points. I had it 94-94 after 10. From my point of view, it’s not Klitschko who took the risk in round 11, it’s Joshua. He’s the one who stepped foward right from the beginning of the round. I think Klitschko was expecting Joshua to run out of gas in the later rounds (as you mentioned and as pretty much everyone thought would happen) and he was really surprised by the sudden outburst.
What a fight!!
wow Klitschko was fighting to his opponents skills. even after a year and a half layloff he preforms like the Klitschko of 10 years ago. great fight. one of the best HW fights you’re ever going to see.
Feel bad for klitschko and his USB STICK
First ones not even in English and seconds terrible quality… Useless.
Bs stoppage anyone that says it wasn’t is lying to themselves, this is why ppl hate boxing always some corruption
It’s hard for me to consider this an early stoppage since it happened late in the fight, it was the 3rd kd against Klitschko
and these were no flash kd, they resulted from exhaustion and many power shots landed by Joshua in this round (including two huge uppercuts!). And may I add, Klitschko did not complain about the stoppage.
As I say below, I think nothing hit in that final flurry, but the ref took into consideration the 2 KD. I think he should have let it go a power punch more, I mean, it’s a huge fight :)
It was a great fight and you focus on the stoppage just to have something negative to say? Had nothing to do with corruption, Same thing happens in MMA, there are several fights where it’s been early stoppages. Sometimes the ref stops the fight a little early and sometmes they wait too long.
seeing it afterwards looks like an early stoppage but the referee is there and has to take a decision quickly: protecting a person is more important than making a mistake. Of course having seen all the match and how relatively easily joshua can punch himself out if he doesn’t finish a job we can work with fantasy and imagine Klitschko able to come back in the match and turn it again. But the referee was really fair: no corruption at all. He was also very very careful in asking Klitschko if he wanted to continue and in checking his reactivity giving him more time to recover (he did the same for Joshua). So he behave impartially.
He’d been down twice in the last minute, was unsteady on his feet and wasn’t throwing anything back. If he’d gone down again the fight was over anyway. The ref did the right thing. Klitschko and his corner didn’t complain.
A great fight displaying an old ex-champion in quite good shape and strong desires to be at the top again. A big surprise for everybody and Joshua himself when he hit the canvas but recovery well. He was an easy prey because was exhausted due to the energy spent in the previous round and probably overweight. Good experience for him and a learning one for future bouts. The stoppage looks a little bit premature.
Yeah, no punches really hit in the final flurry, but the ref certainly took into consideration the 2 knockdowns. Me too, I think he could have let it go a clean power punch further :)
Mattsnow: However, better safe than sorry. I don’t think
at all that continuing fighting would do a differencein favor of Wladim ibut most likely badly affected his pride
Yeah also it is worth noting the ref gave an awful lot of time to Wladimir after both the last knockdowns so he could tell AJ to back off. Fair stoppage.
2 awesome gentlemen and sportsman. It was an awesome match!
Pls find a quality one with no freezes or skipping
Good fight!
Just suggest and link a better one, they’ll be happy to post it.
Kamrul Kks: Just rude as usual so no surprises here. If you don’t like it follow up Mattsnow suggestion or pay on demand. The host is doing here much more than you deserve.
This one maybe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshabECrtSA
Cпасибо Mattsnow! ;P
too much muscles on joshua’s arms… a bit more on the lean side he woulda had an easy win
Really need to re-evaluate the 3 star rating Good lord!
Please someone tell me how it wasn’t 4?
Anyway, I thought it was a quality stoppage. He’d give Wlad two 12 counts and the old Warrior was done, spent. The uppercut was just ridiculous.
Both fighters were brilliant.
How can ATBF rate this 3 stars the same as Quigg fight on the undercard? Seriously? It was an exciting 4 star fight whilst the Quigg was probably 2.5 at most.
grande lotta
The fact that this fight has been established as a 3 start fight is a perfect example of why some of the folks I know personally don’t put much stock in the rating system here. This fight should be at least a 4 start fight in my humble opinion. The problem is the number of fights given 4 or even 5 starts is probably to high in the first place, thus fostering an environment and culture in which mediocrity is suddenly being referenced as outstanding, and still there are certain fights that slip through the cracks, like this one. And, again just imo, it’s not just the fight that determine a rating… It’s who is in it… What’s at stake… The relationship of the fighters is sometimes important, if there’s a lot of animosity.