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Nick Parkinson
As Anthony Joshua enters his next — and defining — stage of his career, he’s focused on one major area: his fitness. On Saturday the English heavyweight will defend his WBA, IBF and WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev, his first fight of 2020, which will be shown live on DAZN in the United States and more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), 31, won back those belts from Andy Ruiz Jr. on points last December, after being stopped by the American in a major upset in June 2019. He has used the delay in fighting caused by the coronavirus pandemic to increase his stamina and improve sparring sessions.
“When I lost to Ruiz, I thought how did this little, fat munchkin throw a barrage of punches at me at once, and I threw a two-punch combo and I’m gasping for air,” Joshua told ESPN. “I had to really think about my strategy. I wanted to become more conditioned towards performing at an intense level. So, I’ve worked on punch output, less recovery, putting myself in tougher situations, being able to flow on the heavy bag for ten minutes at a time, and body sparring, which was very tough and gruesome during lockdown.
“I definitely feel I have got fitter because I have been able to work during lockdown on that, I have not been working to a deadline fatiguing myself with outside activity, it’s just been boxing focused.”
Joshua also prioritized a different set of fighters to work with in the gym. His team previously hadn’t made that a specific focus.
“We moved to open sparring, and specific sparring partners is important,” Joshua said. “For the first Ruiz fight, we had guys who were like 6ft 5in in for sparring and I was fighting someone who was 5ft something. Preparation has to be diligent and you can’t just rely on heart and strength. You have to be well prepared and this is the next stage of my career where I have to be more specific and tailored towards my opponents.
“Secondly, it’s about punch output, you have to be willing to punch until the final bell, there is no getting tired, it’s about controlling your opponent when you are not punching with feints, head movements, controls and throwing combinations when you are in range. I learned about fitness and what it means to be boxing fit.
If Joshua defeats Bulgarian Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs), 39, in front of a crowd capped at 1,000 due to coronavirus restrictions at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London, he will proceed to bigger fights next year against either rival world champion Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), the WBC titleholder also from England, former WBC champion Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs), or Oleksandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs), Ukraine’s former undisputed world cruiserweight champion.
2021 could be the biggest year of Joshua’s career, who turned professional after winning gold at the 2012 Olympics, became world champion in 2016 and then knocked out former champion Wladimir Klitschko a year later.
As humbling and inconvenient as it was for Joshua when Ruiz halted him in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden, New York, Joshua now looks back on it as a pivotal moment in his development. Losing to Ruiz changed the Brit and encouraged him to always be better prepared for his opponents ahead.
“I learned about the industry I’m in [by losing to Ruiz],” Joshua said. “It’s a rough man’s sport, you have to keep pulling yourself back up, there’s no room for quitters or signs of weakness, you have to be strong.