The pride of Great Britain, Anthony Joshua, defended his IBF and WBA world heavyweight titles on October 28 by stopping Carlos Takam in front of 78,000 adoring fans at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Joshua’s record advances to 20 and 0 all wins by stoppage. Takam was a late replacement for Kubrat Pulev who suffered an injury on October 16 and was forced to pull out. Takam a massive underdog heading into the fight with odds as high as 40 to 1 had little to no chance of winning.
The first round started at a measured pace, the only real damage being done to Joshua was a head butt from Takam in round two that broke the nose of the champion, causing blood to start dripping from his nostrils early.
As the fight continued the size difference was obvious, Joshua at 6 foot 6 and 254 pounds was the heaviest of his career, Takam at 6 foot 1 looked much smaller but despite his disadvantage he kept on fighting.
Joshua sensed urgency from the nose injury and started pushing the pace on the smaller challenger, in round four he was able to open up a large cut over Takam’s eye with a flurry of shots, and score a standing eight count the same round with a fast left hook that caused Takam’s glove to touch the ground.
As the rounds continued Takam was able to slip many of Joshua’s combos and got cut on the other eye, the blood was affecting his vision but the Cameroon native refused to quit.
Finally in round number ten, Joshua was able to hurt Takam and wobble him pushing him back to the corner only for the referee Phil Edwards to jump in waving the fight off at 1:34 of round number 10.
Takam protested the stoppage but with only two more rounds to go he was already down on the scorecards and needed a miraculous KO to win.
