Promoter Eddie Hearn called it the fight Anthony Joshua needed. But Dillian Whyte also provided the type of test Joshua’s hype train required, too.
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Since winning that gold medal in 2012 and then exploding onto the paid ranks, fellow media and fans have clamoured to thrust the heavyweight hope into an unseemly rush for the stars.
And make no mistake, the 26-year-old is the real deal but what these seven stanzas of brutality showed is that there is still some way to go.
He has the size and vicious power on his side but on Saturday night in front of 17,000 ecstatic fans at the O2 Arena, he was exposed at times. The early rounds and in particular the second, highlighted the need for improvements before hitting the world level.
His fundamentals are very basic. Footwoork and head movement were two areas of vulnerability and he clearly needs to utilise the jab more. Still, Joshua landed enough of his murderous right hands to have KO’d a dozen less durable men than Whyte.
In his toughest test so far Joshua proved he can punch, fight, take a shot and box with brains and class at times. For the 15th time he also showed he has that killer finish and encouragingly in the deeper rounds, too. The onslaught ended with a massive right uppercut which dropped Whyte onto his back, his head lolling worryingly through the bottom ropes.
He was not quite carried out and Joshua, sensibly, is not getting carried away.
“Dillian isn’t a top 10 fighter, neither am I, but at the level we’re at it was a good fight,” Joshua said yesterday. “I could do better, but if it was easy and I was the complete article I’d be world champion.
A great picture from last night – @anthonyfjoshua with his dad..must have been a proud man pic.twitter.com/HxAp3yXllt
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) December 13, 2015
“I’ve got a lot more to work on so there’s a lot I can take away from that fight. What I got from last night I’ve never got from my last 14 opponents so I can take all that away, watch that fight back, go over certain things and I can get myself together moving forward into 2016.
“What can I do now? I can fight David Haye, people want me to fight Tyson Fury, but you can’t just come into pro boxing, show a bit of talent and be thrown in the deep end and people think you’re just going to blitz everyone.”
Talk of progression and not a surge to world glory is as impressive as his skills in the ring. Put it all together and Hearn knows he has a potential box-office superstar on his hands.
But this is a vital stage of Joshua’s development and the idea now will be to rein in that expectation while at the same time, the six foot six inch juggernaut learns more about his tough trade.
