Izuchukwu OkosiBritish-Nigerian former WBO, IBF and IBO champion Anthony Joshua in the early hours of Sunday (Nigerian time) defeated Swede Otto Wallin as he seeks to make a huge return to the top of the heavyweight boxing division after recent floundering performances, reports Prime Business Africa.
Joshua won the first round that was closely fought but gradually found his groove and was clearly the better boxer in second round.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelJoshua’s relentlessness clearly made for something as his devastating punches saw his opponent bleed from the nose and mouth.
From then on, it was smooth sailing for Joshua whose fanbase goes beyond United Kingdom where he was raised but also Nigeria where he has his roots with thousand of fans staying glued to their television sets to catch a glimpse of the fight.
The dominance of ‘AJ’ from the sound of the first bell to the delivery of a left-right combination in the fifth round of the contest was all it took for the camp of Wallin to give up on the fight as their man received medical attention while on his stool.
Wallin had given Tyson Fury the scare before ultimately losing when both fighters met in 2019 and it was a warning to Joshua that the fight was not a given for him.
However, the Anglo-Nigerian who lost his heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021 and their subsequent rematch in 2022 was evidently ready to roll back the years and prove his doubters wrong on ‘the day of reckoning’ in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
On his post match press conference, Joshua stated that he was willing to take on any rival in 2024 as he is expected to fight one of Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury or Joseph Parker who got the better of Wilder in the other high profile fight card of the night.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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