Referee Howard Foster (C) tries to separate Dillian Whyte (L) and Anthony Joshua after the first round during their British and Commonwealth heavyweight bout at the O2 arena in London yesterday.
AFP/London
Olympic champion Anthony Joshua defeated former kick-boxer Dillian Whyte to take the British heavyweight title yesterday with a bruising seventh-round knockout and edge closer to a possible shot at the world crown.
The 26-year-old took his record to 15 knockouts from 15 fights since turning pro after winning 2012 Olympic gold in London.
Joshua’s latest win raises the prospect of a clash with WBO and WBA heavyweight champion Tyson Fury if his fellow British fighter beats Wladimir Klitschko in their world title rematch.
“Yes I enjoyed it, more because it was about bragging rights,” said Joshua who had lost to Whyte in 2009 during their amateur careers.
“There had been a lot of talking, all the way back since 2009. We’d been patiently waiting for this moment and I enjoy being victorious and showing that talk is cheap, you have to back it up when you’re in the ring.
“He was tough, there were times when I hurt him in the first round and he hurt me in the second. It was a matter of who had that little more grit, determination and skill.”
Saturday’s fight was the first time Joshua had been taken beyond three rounds in his professional career.
“I took myself past three rounds and felt that I carried the right engine through the fight,” he added.
“Even when I had been loading up and doing silly things, I still had enough power to knock him out in the seventh.”
Meanwhile, once great Roy Jones Junior saw his fading career hit a new low yesterday as he was knocked out in the fourth round of a cruiserweight contest against Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli.
Fighting in Moscow for the first time since being granted Russian citizenship in September, Jones suffered a ninth career defeat and fifth by knock-out.
The 46-year-old American was once regarded as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world during his pomp from the mid-1990s for around a decade.
But ever since a shock second round KO defeat to compatriot Antonio Tarver for the lineal light-heavyweight title in 2004, Jones has been a shadow of his former self.
He came into the Maccarinelli bout on the back of an eight-fight winning streak, although only against overmatched opposition, since a brutal 10th round KO defeat to Russian Denis Lebedev in Moscow in 2011.
