Boxing · 2017 · London, England
Wembley Goes Wild
In front of 90,000 fans, the largest British boxing crowd since before the Second World War, Anthony Joshua survives a heavy knockdown to stop the veteran Wladimir Klitschko in a genuine classic.
Joshua def. Klitschko, TKO round 11
Result
90,000
Attendance
Joshua 1, Klitschko 3
Knockdowns
Anthony Joshua's unbeaten record met Wladimir Klitschko's championship pedigree at Wembley Stadium on 29 April 2017 in front of 90,000 spectators, the largest crowd for a boxing match in the United Kingdom since Tommy Farr fought Joe Louis in 1937. Klitschko, a long-reigning former champion attempting a comeback, was expected to test Joshua's inexperience against elite opposition.
Joshua dropped Klitschko in the fifth round, but Klitschko responded by hurting and dropping Joshua himself in the sixth, a moment that briefly looked like it could end the younger man's unbeaten run. Joshua recovered, and in the eleventh round produced a sustained assault that put Klitschko down twice more before the referee stopped the contest.
The fight is widely regarded as an instant heavyweight classic and the signature win of Joshua's career, establishing him as boxing's biggest global draw at the time. The scale of the Wembley crowd itself became part of the story, a symbol of heavyweight boxing's renewed mainstream popularity in Britain.
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