Olympic champion Anthony Joshua on Saturday defeated former kickboxer Dillian Whyte to take the British heavyweight boxing title with a bruising seventh-round knockout and to edge closer to a possible shot at the world crown.
The 26-year-old took his record to 15 knockouts in 15 fights since turning professional 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.
Photo: Reuters
“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 said.
“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,” Joshua added.
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,” Joshua said.
“Even when I had been loading up and doing silly things, I still had enough power to knock him out in the seventh,” he added.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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