Former heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko feels confident in Anthony Joshua's ability to unify the entire division.
Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) fought Klitschko back in April, in one of the most memorable fights of the year. And there was a record crowd of 90,000 to watch the anticipated fight at Wembley in London.
After going down in the fifth round, Klitschko came back to deck Joshua in the sixth and nearly put him away. Joshua survived, and rallied to drop Klitschko two more times in the eleventh for the TKO win.
The loss to Joshua was only Klitschko's second defeat in ten years. With the victory, Joshua now holds the IBF, WBA (Super) and IBO titles.
A rematch was being discussed for the fall and was closed to a deal, but those plans were cast aside when Klitschko made a decision to announce his retirement from the sport.
"I have passed the torch to the younger lion. I wish, from the bottom of my heart, he continues to carry this torch for a long time and is very successful just like I was. Joshua is capable of unifying the division, absolutely," Klitschko told The Sun.
And Klitschko is really hoping that Joshua pulls it off - because it makes his record look better with every victory that Joshua secures.
"I'd say the more Joshua shines, the better I shine. If I lost, I want to make sure I lost to the better man. It was an incredible fight. We both had fun, the fans had fun. It was win-win for all of us. It doesn't feel like a loss. I won a lot of respect that I never had, even when I won my world titles," Klitschko said.
"My ego wanted to win. But to experience what I did, I wouldn't change the end result. It opened doors and made my sporting life more colourful."
Joshua is currently in talks to face WBO champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) in a unification in the first quarter of 2018. The two sides are inching close to a deal.
2023-10-20 04:52:56
