World’s tripple title holder, Anthony Joshua will defend his heavyweight titles against Russian Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium on 22 September.<\/p>\n
Joshua, a 28-year-old, unified the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles with a unanimous points win over New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff in March.<\/p>\n
Unbeaten in 21 professional bouts, he now faces 38-year-old Povetkin, the WBA champion from 2011-2013.<\/p>\n
Povetkin knocked out David Price on the Joshua-Parker undercard in Cardiff.<\/p>\n
The experienced Russian has suffered only one defeat since his professional debut in 2005, losing by unanimous decision to Wladimir Klitschko in Moscow in 2013.<\/p>\n
It will be a meeting of two former Olympic champions, Povetkin taking super-heavyweight gold at the 2004 Athens Games and Joshua the same title at London 2012.<\/p>\n
“I can’t wait to get back in the ring – the end of March feels a long time ago now,” said Joshua, who will return to the scene of his 11th-round knockout of former champion Klitschko in April last year.<\/p>\n
“Povetkin is a serious challenge that I will prepare meticulously for. He has serious pedigree and only a fool would underestimate what he brings to the table.”<\/p>\n
Povetkin knocked out Britain’s Price with a left hook in the fifth round at Wembley and said of his next challenge: “Anthony Joshua has four belts and I want them all.”<\/p>\n
The Russian was banned in March 2017 after failing a second drug test in a year but was cleared to resume fighting nine months later.<\/p>\n
He is the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s WBA title. Fighting him means the Briton is likely to have greater freedom in selecting his next opponent.<\/p>\n
Unbeaten WBC champion Deontay Wilder has offered Joshua $50m (\u00a337.2m) to fight in the United States, but the Joshua camp wants the bout on home soil.<\/p>\n
Wilder beat Luis Ortiz in his last fight in March and has recorded 39 of his professional 40 victories by knockout.<\/p>\n
No heavyweight has ever held all four recognised world titles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
World’s tripple title holder, Anthony Joshua will defend his heavyweight titles against Russian Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium on 22 September. Joshua, a 28-year-old, unified the WBA, IBF and WBO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[13854,2402,13855,9199],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Anthony-Joshua-xxx-915x598.jpg?fit=915%2C598&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60461,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/title-defence-alexander-povetkins-fight-will-be-toughest-after-klitchkos-defeat-anthony-joshua\/","url_meta":{"origin":53924,"position":0},"title":"Title Defence: Alexander Povetkin’s Fight Will Be Toughest After Klitchko’s Defeat – Anthony Joshua","author":"Damilare Salami","date":"September 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua expects his title defence against Russian Alexander Povetkin on Saturday to be his toughest fight since Wladimir Klitschko and to end with a similar outcome. Joshua, 28, knocked out Ukrainian Klitschko at Wembley in April 2017 and the 2012 Olympic champion is returning to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","block_context":{"text":"Sports","link":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/sports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Anthony Joshua, Alexander Povetkin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Anthony-Joshua-xxx-915x598.jpg?fit=915%2C598&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Anthony-Joshua-xxx-915x598.jpg?fit=915%2C598&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Anthony-Joshua-xxx-915x598.jpg?fit=915%2C598&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Anthony-Joshua-xxx-915x598.jpg?fit=915%2C598&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53070,"url":"https:\/\/www.citypeopleonline.com\/anthony-joshuas-next-two-fights-to-hold-at-wembley\/","url_meta":{"origin":53924,"position":1},"title":"Anthony Joshua\u2019s next two fights to hold at Wembley","author":"Reporter","date":"July 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The unified heavyweight world champion, Anthony Joshua, will fight his next two bouts at Wembley Stadium. 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