WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua retained all three of his belts by thwarting the game challenge of Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev inside nine rounds at London’s Wembley Arena.
To the cheers of the 1,000 fans allowed inside the venue, and with Floyd Mayweather watching on at ringside, Joshua knocked down Pulev twice in the third round and twice more in the ninth round to keep an all-British heavyweight unification battle with Tyson Fury well on track for 2021.

The fight, which was Joshua’s 25th as a professional, and also his first defence as new champion, began slowly, with both Joshua and Pulev using the opening round to test one another’s control of distance.
It then exploded in a dramatic third round, however, when Joshua stood his ground and let his right hand go, landing it in the form of a cross, which hurt and later dropped Pulev, and also as an uppercut, which had the same impact. Legs unsteady, but spitting defiance, Pulev seemed on the brink of being stopped. Yet somehow he stuck in there.

Better than that, Pulev, 28-2 (14), recovered well enough in the fourth to win the round, gambling now with right crosses of his own, and had moments of success with that shot in the following round too.
Ultimately, though, it was Joshua, 24-1 (22), who boasted the edge in power and this showed in the ninth when he once again stood in range with Pulev and made a dent in him. Uppercuts this time did the trick, a series of them dropping Pulev to his knees, before a final right cross, thrown with confidence, left Pulev flat on his back and left referee Deon Dwarte of South Africa with no option but to wave the fight over.

This was a fight three years in the making – originally scheduled for October 2017 – and one Joshua wanted to put behind him. A fight ordered (by the IBF), not chosen, it had been niggling away at the Londoner and represented a hurdle he had to overcome before taking on the more lucrative and challenging fights in the heavyweight division.

Now, with Pulev duly disposed, the talk is of Joshua and Fury meeting next year in a heavyweight blockbuster, one likely to take place in Saudi Arabia.

Between them, Joshua and Fury own all four of the major heavyweight titles (Joshua has the WBA, IBF and WBO; Fury has the WBC) and have in the past 12 months clearly established themselves as the top two fighters in the division.

More than that, they represent a compelling contrast in styles and personalities and would, together, for one night put boxing at the very forefront of the sporting world.

(Telegraph).