The British fighter has three of the four major heavyweight belts after beating Joseph Parker – but his path to the fourth may not be entirely straightforwardOf all the boxes that Anthony Joshua had rushed to tick during his whirlwind four-year professional career, only one had remained blank until Saturday night: going the distance in the ring. No more. Joseph Parker proved as tough as advertised, outgunned but never overwhelmed, but – tellingly – it was Joshua, with his supposedly suspect stamina, who finished the stronger man as he won a wide and unanimous points decision.In truth it wasn’t a classic. It was too stop-start for that, with the referee Giuseppe Quartarone rightly taking much of the blame for being...
British heavyweight phenomenon possesses the physical and mental capacity to become one of the greatest names in any sportFor the first century of boxing’s rule as the dirtiest yet most glamorous branch of the sports entertainment industry, the undisputed heavyweight champion was the king of sport – from Jack Dempsey, then Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali through to Mike Tyson.While it is not a crown that has balanced easily on the head of any champion since the reign of Lennox Lewis at the turn of the millennium – mainly because the Klitschko brothers then split the kingdom – Anthony Joshua is building a case that might soon become irresistible for one man to rule alone again. Related: Joseph...
The American, who battled back to stop Luis Ortiz in Brooklyn, is a flawed drawcard – dangerous enough to bring out the Briton’s best but naiveDeontay Wilder could hardly have done a better job of selling himself to Anthony Joshua, his promoter, Eddie Hearn, and a potential pay-per-view audience of many millions than he did in coming from behind to stop Luis Ortiz in the seventh defence of his WBC world heavyweight title in Brooklyn on Saturday night.But would he win a unification fight with Joshua, who rules three versions of the title and will probably take Joseph Parker’s IBF belt when they meet in Cardiff on 31 March? Unlikely. Related: Deontay Wilder: 'I want to fight Anthony Joshua, but...
Bristol City celebration and Cricket World Cup final were among the highlights in a year when sport too often seemed to reflect the corrosion of the world around itThe sight of Bristol City’s manager sweeping up a 10-year-old ballboy in a dance of pure joy to celebrate their team’s last-minute cup victory over mighty Manchester United last week added a note of sweetness to a year of conflict and contradictions. Many sports lovers had found themselves spending too much time in 2017 worrying about the integrity of what they were being asked to applaud: the integrity of the competitor, the integrity of the competition.From state-sponsored doping to tax avoidance, from child-abuse cover-ups to corruption in sport’s most powerful governing bodies, so...
Given sport’s bad reputational year, it is fine that the BBC is preparing to get Chris Froome to defend himself on what is normally a controversy-free programmeFor more than 60 years the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year has served up a mildly diverting few hours of saccharine and froth. The formula is long established: laud Britain’s sporting heroes, relive their glories through stirring montages, and throw a threw softball questions for them to answer.Usually it makes for an easily digestible, if unchallenging, three hours of viewing. On Sunday night, however, the BBC is expected to break with tradition by firmly questioning Chris Froome about his failed test at the Vuelta a España when he appears via video link from...