Walking out into Cardiff’s Principality Stadium last night, to the sound of nothing but boos, Carlos Takam was supposed to be just another simple KO for Anthony Joshua’s perfect record.
Takam was 16/1 to win the bout, Joshua – a huge 1/50. After 10 incredible rounds, which passed like a Rocky film, almost everybody was cheering for Takam. The rogue French-Cameroonian who gave it his all and refused to go down.
When the referee stopped the bout – thousands believed it was too early (including Carlos Takam himself, see below) – yet more boos were all that could be heard in the stadium roaring out from the mouths of all watching.
While Joshua won every round of the fight, Takam was in some ways the real winner – coming into the stadium to cries of hate and leaving with the respect of everybody watching across the globe.
Anthony Joshua on the other hand revealed to many what others have believed for years. He isn’t all he’s made out to be and he has a lot of weaknesses that are simply yet to be exposed in what seems to be a very poor era for heavyweight boxing.
The one name which springs to mind as a serious challenger for Joshua is ‘The Bronze Bomber’, Deontay Wilder.
Holding the WBC Heavyweight belt since 2015 and boasting an incredible record of 38 fights, 38 wins, and 37 knockouts – it seems to only make sense that he wants a piece of Joshua, and he hasn’t been quiet about it.
Speaking to FightHype the WBC champ threw some serious, and accurate, shade at AJ, saying:
He definitely has stamina problems, we saw that in the Klitschko fight. If I was him, whoever his stamina coach is, they need to be fired.
There are a lot of things that Joshua is doing wrong that’s making him have those stamina problems.
Stay off those weights. He works out way too much, all those muscles can be so heavy. It look good but does it really benefit you though?
The muscles, they look good, but this is boxing… this ain’t weightlifting.
He train his body to lift, to lift things so the muscles going to be good for lifting but this sport you ain’t lifting nothing but your own body.
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Speaking about the true hero of the night, Takam, Wilder added:
Takam was a tough dude. He came in and he was like ‘you can say whatever but I’m coming to win’.
He got my respect. He got a lot of people’s respect and he gained a lot of fans.
You can tell from the fourth round the referee was just ready to end this fight. He trained to take him [Takam] and say ‘you done?’ I just had the feeling the referee was trying to stop this fight for some reason.
So what is next for Anthony Joshua? A rematch with Takam followed by a unification fight with Wilder?
Who knows, Tyson Fury might even be back then. Now that’d be a real battle. My money would be on Fury.
Do you think the fight was stopped too soon? Let us know in the comments.
