September has been a so far busy and productive month for boxing fans.
On September 8, we witnessed a former titleholder reclaim his championship status when Shawn Porter defeated Danny Garcia to capture the vacant WBC welterweight title with a unanimous decision victory in a great fight. Porter vs. Garcia was evenly matched and Shawn had to dig deep to grind out the win, as both men are now left looking at their options moving forward.
One week later, this past Saturday night, in Las Vegas, Canelo Alvarez rose to the occasion in defeating former lineal middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin by majority decision (115-113 twice and 114-114). In another close call, and likely Fight of the Year, Canelo showed himself to be a little more versatile on this evening.
And, as we look tot he future, we don’t have to look far at all, as this coming weekend will mark the return of IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who will be facing off with former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin on Saturday, September 22. The contest will take place from Wembley Stadium in London.
The 28-year old Joshua (21-0, 20 KO’s) hasn’t had as much buzz for his matchup vs. Povetkin (34-1, 24 KO’s) due to a few key reasons. For one, the impending announcement of the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury fight took away some of the spotlight, as that matchup has turned itself into the talk of the town.
Two, Povetkin simply has faded a bit from the headlines, as he is still trying to redeem himself after receiving punishment in March of 2017 for failing a drug test for a second time. Povetkin, 39, was banned for life but it was later reduced to a year.
Still, no worries from Joshua, as he believes he has a clean opponent in front of him as he continues to grind down camp with trainer Robert McCracken inside of the walls of GB Boxing.
By all accounts, Joshua is looking explosive in training and should be able to dig down to overcome his latest rival.
“Go in there, and have fun, don’t be cautious because it’s ruining my aggressive style,” Joshua stated to SkySports recently. “Go out there and take out Povetkin, like I would do with any other opponent. How will I approach it? Maybe I will box and keep it simple. Maybe I might keep a tight guard and go pound-for-pound, trade-for-trade.”
Joshua wasn’t overly impressive in his most recent fight, a points victory over Joseph Parker in March, yet he claimed that the possibility of his facing Wilde afterwards affected his performance.
Now, with Povetkin squarely in front of him, he has no reason not to have faith in his style.
“The reason I say that is because I’m versatile,” Joshua said. “I can keep it long or slug it out. It depends what I analyse from my opponent. I analyse them punch by punch and I switch up my style as the rounds go on.”
Joshua need a clear, definitive victory to keep his momentum going. If Wilder vs. Fury does indeed come off, it’s a fight that many eyeballs will be fixed on. It would benefit Joshua to perform strongly this weekend, and then call out the winner of the contest.
But first things first. He has to defeat Povetkin this weekend.
