Anthony Joshua is perhaps heavyweight boxing’s most brutal finisher, but which is his favourite KO of all?
The IBF, WBA and WBO world champion (24-1 as a professional) has claimed 22 of those 24 victories inside distance. But now he has revealed which one of those early nights he enjoyed the most. And it is sure to ruffle a few feathers locally.
The Watford behemoth spoke to Brendan Bradford of Sporting News Australia to go into detail about the night he starred in a huge all-British showdown between unbeaten prospects back in December 2015.
Which is Joshua’s favourite KO?
“He said: “Probably I go back to the Dillian (Whyte) one. Sweet. When I first started boxing, I was just in Finchley, you start to hear little things where the coach is like ‘this geezer, if he has a little sneeze he’ll pull out of a fight and say he’s got the flu and this and that’
“When I fought Dillian, I’d been training, they called me on Thursday night and said do you wanna fight Friday, and I said let’s fight.
“Imagine I’d been training every day. In a fight you have to have your peak time and deload time so you can recover. When I fought Dillian he was like a world champion kickboxer, I’d been training until Thursday. It was a good fight, he beat me, respect to you, well done.
Heavyweight champion of the world @anthonyfjoshua tells @1bbradfo his favourite knockout as a professional. #Boxing pic.twitter.com/O2eTKQrmWv
— Sporting News Australia (@sportingnewsau) February 1, 2021
“Then when I was going through this boxing thing as an amateur, he was always talking rubbish on the internet. ‘When you turn pro, I’m gonna smoke you’, this and that. And I’ve never been one to get onto the internet wars.
“So that fight was now like, all that internet stuff you’ve been talking, now you’re facing the real one. It was a whole saga in London where it was like, let’s see who the best of the best is.
Whyte a big stepping stone for AJ
“It was kind of like that Joyce/Dubois fight, who’s gonna go on and be the next one. That knockout just cemented, if you would have lumped £100 on that this kid’s gonna go on and be a world champion, that would have been a sure bet because I feel that uppercut cemented where we was about to go.”
That seventh-round stoppage of Whyte was indeed a huge moment in AJ’s rise to world domination – despite being only his 15th bout as a pro. In his next, he would crush American Charles Martin to claim his first world heavyweight title.
Now AJ is preparing for the biggest test of his career to date, a huge unification match with fellow Briton Tyson Fury. They are expected to meet in June, likely in the Middle East.
A fight with Fury will also net Joshua the biggest payday of his career to date. Both men are expected to take home around $100million for their first fight alone. They are expected to sign a two-fight pact with an immediate rematch hopefully to follow before the end of 2021.
Whyte (27-2) meanwhile is still waiting for his first world title shot all these years on. He was on the brink of a WBC shot when he was knocked out in stunning fashion by Alexander Povetkin last August.
The pair are set to rematch in London on March 6 – with the status of WBC mandatory contender again on the line.
