When Anthony Joshua made his pro debut in 2013, a little more than a year after winning an Olympic gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics, he never imagined how big of a star he would be in just a few, short years.
In Joshua's pro debut against then-undefeated heavyweight Emanuele Leo, Joshua was already being referred to as "The People's Champ" and came with lofty expectations. Joshua took down Leo in less than three minutes and now five years later, Joshua is atop the heavyweight division.
Now the unified WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion, Joshua is set to defend his titles against Alexander Povetkin on September 22 at Wembley Stadium. In a conference call talking about his upcoming fight against Povetkin told Fightful that he never imagined headlining a boxing show at Wembley Stadium, where 90,000 fans are expected to be in attendance for the fight.
“I promise you not at all. I was actually looking at some old pictures and it made me appreciate the journey because you know how boxing is. It’s rough, it’s rugged, hard to get support and you just got to build and build and build. We managed to build to this today. But I can honestly say, as tough as it is, it’s as much of a blessing and I wouldn’t change it for anything,” Joshua said.
This will be Joshua's second main event fight at Wembley with the first being against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017. Joshua defeated Klitschko by 11th round TKO, also in front of 90,000 people which also set the all-time British boxing attendance record.
After the fight against Povetkin, Joshua is expected to fight at Wembley on April 2019 in front of 100,000 people. Joshua vs. Povetkin will be streamed exclusively in the United States on the DAZN platform.
