Boxing

ANTHONY JOSHUA’S punches are like being hit with a SLEDGEHAMMER – his bruised sparring partner has revealed. The two-time heavyweight champion is one of the hardest hitters in the division, with 22 knockouts in his 25 wins.
Anthony Joshua pictured with Frazer ClarkeCredit: Twitter
And heavyweight contender Frazer Clarke – managed by AJ – opened up on what it is like to take a whack from the superstar fighter.
Clarke told The Independent: “There’s a comparison of hitting something with a sledgehammer, or hitting something with a normal hammer a lot of times – you know, like when you hit a nail.
“[The latter] is what it is with Joshua, then he’ll finish you off with a sledgehammer on the last shot. Boom.”
Clarke, 31, spent several years on the Team GB squad with Joshua, 33, sharing hundreds of sparring rounds.
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And after bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, he turned professional and is now 7-0 with five KOs.
Joshua meanwhile, is in talks to return in the summer having beaten Jermaine Franklin, 29, in April.
Dillian Whyte, 35, has been sent an offer to rematch AJ but a clause in the contract held the bout up.
Joshua is also negotiating a Saudi Arabia super-fight against Deontay Wilder, 37, for December.
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And Clarke sent out a fierce warning to AJ’s heavyweight rivals having been on the end of his famed power.
He said: “It’s not nice. It’s not nice being hit by any heavyweight.
“You only have to look at Anthony Joshua, the man is made of muscle – he has muscles coming out of places where muscles shouldn’t be – but when people think about Joshua punching, what they don’t realise is… it’s not the one punch. He’s actually a really good combination puncher, and a fast puncher.”
“When he gets the opportunity, he punches hard and often, and that’s almost worse than one single shot.
“You can prepare for a single shot – you can sort of brace on impact – but what you can’t prepare for is two, three, four shots from different angles.”
Anthony Joshua now manages Frazer Clarke More

RICKY HATTON has launched a stinging attack on the heavyweight boxing scene after Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua’s latest updates.Neither Fury or Joshua have fights booked at present after failing to agree terms to face each other earlier this year.
Ricky Hatton has launched an attack on the ‘circus’ heavyweight boxing sceneCredit: PA
The two British boxers had been involved in very public negotiations, which included videos posted to social media by Fury.
However, the pair failed to agree on any of the Gypsy King’s proposals.
As a result, they have both been left out of action as the heavyweight division appears to be stalling.
Former two-weight world champion Hatton has been left frustrated by the heavyweights.
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Speaking to talkSPORT, he admitted: “The heavyweight scene is a little bit upsetting, isn’t it?
“I’m not pointing any fingers at promoters or TV or even fighters, but it’s a little bit like a circus at the minute, you don’t know who to believe or what to believe.
“I originally saw that Dillian Whyte vs Anthony Joshua was going to be made in August and then Dillian Whyte said he hasn’t even had an offer and then Eddie Hearn said he had made an offer and then they were arguing over how much the offer was and I was thinking to myself ‘what do you believe?’.”
He also added: “AJ and Tyson [Fury] haven’t fought since nearly Christmas and I remember back in the day when you won the title you had a certain number of days to defend it otherwise you got stripped.
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“I don’t know what’s happening these days but it’s like the governing bodies are making up their own rules for their financial benefit and it’s hurting our sport.
“Negotiating is part of the business. I’ve been there and you want the best deal, but sometimes they’re going to cut the nose off to spite the face.
“You see YouTubers, rappers and Mixed Martial Artists fighting each other and they’re the ones pulling in the crowds while our sport is suffering and it’s because big fights aren’t being made.”
Fury and Joshua had both been targeted for a lucrative heavyweight tournament in Saudi Arabia later this year but the event appears to have now been put on hold.
Tyson Fury has not fought since December 2022Credit: Getty
Negotiations for Anthony Joshua’s fight with Dillian Whyte have reached an impasseCredit: Getty
Meanwhile, Fury’s undisputed world title fight with Oleksandr Usyk has failed to come to fruition.
The WBC champion has promised his fans that he will make a “show stopping” return to the ring, though.
As for Joshua, recent talks for a second fight with Dillian Whyte have hit a stumbling block.
An agreement for the bout is being held up by Whyte’s opposition to a one-way rematch clause inserted by Joshua’s team. More

TYSON FURY has been brutally told how to avoid a “12-round disaster” against Oleksandr Usyk.The Gypsy King has not stepped in the ring since defeating Derek Chisora on December 3 last year.
Tyson Fury has been told he could be in for a nightmare versus Oleksandr UsykCredit: AFP
Oleksandr Usyk could face Tyson Fury in a super-fightCredit: AFP
Fury could return in a super-fight for four belts against Usyk at the end of this year.
There are also rumours he could be involved in a bout over the summer.
Carl Froch thinks Fury is setting himself up for defeat if he isn’t maintaining a high standard of training.
Froch told talkSPORT: “If he gets too out of shape and he’s out of the ring for too long, it gets past the point of no return.
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“All of a sudden he’s gonna find himself in a hard fight against somebody who’s bang average.
“I think Fury would be too big for Usyk, but it’s gotta be an on-point Fury, it’s gotta be a Fury that’s 100 per cent on his game and fit for 12 rounds.
“If Usyk decides to stay out of range and box and not engage, just jab his stomach and jab his arms and jab his chest, then take what he can when he’s in range – that could be a 12-round disaster for Fury.
“I’m not so sure he jumps straight with him and that may be the reason why he priced himself out of it, because I think he did price himself out.”
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🥊 Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk – Date, live stream, TV channel and all you need to know about heavyweight bout
There has been speculation that the delay in the proposed bout is due to a financial disagreement over a rematch.
Usyk last fought versus Anthony Joshua in August last year. More

RICKY HATTON fought the best of his generation against Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But neither gave the Manchester hero as much trouble as Luis Collazo.
Ricky Hatton lost to Floyd Mayweather in 2007Credit: Getty
Ricky Hatton was knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in 2009Credit: Getty
The year was 2006 and Hatton had moved up to welterweight in pursuit of a super-fight against pound-for-pound king Mayweather.
And welcoming him to 147lb was the rugged Collazo, from New York with Puerto Rican descent.
Hatton looked on track for his easiest night’s work after scoring a knockdown in the opening round.
But Collazo came on strong down the stretch and pushed the fight so close that the knockdown was actually the deciding factor.
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So despite the dazzling skills of Mayweather and one-punch power of Pacquiao, it was that night in Boston which sticks out the most for Hatton.
He said on talkSPORT: “That was my toughest fight.
“I mean, getting beat by Pacquiao like I did was very tough to come to terms with and Floyd Mayweather was just technically so good.
“From a physical point of view [Collazo was tougher]. I never made fights easy for myself. I was always going to have it out with someone.”
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Ricky Hatton beat Luis Collazo in 2006Credit: Getty
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Hatton was a career light-welterweight – where in 2005 he beat the great Kostya Tszyu – but he moved up to become a two-division champ.
He said: “I’m 5ft 6in. I’m not tall for junior welterweight. So, to move up to welterweight…
“Billy Graham, my trainer, said, ‘No, don’t do it, Rick. Don’t do it.’ But I wanted to do what my heroes had done.
“I wanted to try to become a world champion in two weight divisions. I took it, and I knocked him down in the first ten seconds.
“I thought, ‘I’ll be in the bar in half an hour at this rate.’ But he got up and I won it on a unanimous decision, but only by one point.
“I think it was only the knockdown that won it. The people that I could bully at 10 stone. When I got close, I could push them, shove them all.
It was the worst after I’ve felt. I had hot sweats, shaky, shivering and I couldn’t even go to the afterparty I was in such a bad way.Ricky Hatton on his 2006 win over Luis Collazo
“I couldn’t do it at 10st 7lbs. I hit him, and the shots just bounced off him. I went to shove him back and he didn’t move.
“I thought, ‘Oh this is going to be a long night.’”
Hatton, now 44 and over a decade retired, won Collazo’s WBA title that night but paid the price for it.
He said: “It was the worst after I’ve felt. I had hot sweats, shaky, shivering and I couldn’t even go to the afterparty I was in such a bad way.
“Every time he hit me – Floyd Mayweather wasn’t a big puncher, he was technically unreal – but [Collazo] was a big punching southpaw, and every time he hit me, oh my lord!”
Collazo, 42, fought as recently as March, losing to Angel Ruiz Astorga.
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Hatton would go on to lose in ten rounds to Mayweather and then be brutally KO’d by Pacquiao two years later.
He retired in 2012 after defeat to Vyacheslav Senchenko but he did make a comeback last year for an exhibition with Juan Manuel Marquez, 49.
Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky HattonCredit: PA More

DILLIAN WHYTE has hit out at Anthony Joshua’s team for inserting a rematch clause into their contract. Eddie Hearn sent the heavyweight an offer to face AJ on August 12.
Dillian Whyte hit out at Anthony Joshua’s team for inserting a rematch clause into their contractCredit: PA
Anthony Joshua is in talks to fight Dillian Whyte on August 12Credit: Getty
It comes as Joshua also closes in on a super-fight in Saudi Arabia against Deontay Wilder in December.
So if Whyte were to beat his old rival, he would want to inherit the Middle Eastern blockbuster with Wilder.
But should he sign the deal proposed to him by Hearn, it would tie him down to an immediate rematch with Joshua if he won.
Whyte said on talkSPORT: “Well we had a contract, the contract’s with my lawyer and my lawyers have gone back to him.
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“But there’s a lot of things that have been said publicly that are not happening when we’re negotiating.
“They said it was gonna be a standard contract, but it’s not, there’s a lot of things in the contract now that they didn’t say was gonna be in it…
“It’s like this, he said, ‘We’re gonna send a simple contract,’ and then they sent a very complicated contract with a lot of hoops and a lot of hooks to hook me in.
“I don’t want that, I just want a simple contract, simple fight, winner moves on and has a big fight in Saudi Arabia.
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“This fight for me is about the opportunity, it’s not about the money, that’s why I’m taking the fight for the money they’ve offered me.
“But now they’re trying to put a rematch clause in there that ties me up for a year and messes everything up, I’m not interested in that.
“I just want a straightforward fight, winner moves on, that’s it.”
Hearn has already claimed there a two other names in the pipeline for Joshua to return against.
But Whyte hit back: “What I don’t like is Eddie’s out there talking nonsense, ‘Oh, we’ve got two other guys waiting to go.’
“Mate, no-one cares, just shut up, no-one cares about who you’ve got ready to go.
“It’s a proper fight, let’s get the fight made, stop talking about all these backup plans.”
Whyte, 35, has chased a rematch with Joshua, 33, ever since he was stopped in seven rounds in 2015.
And he is willing to make a deal happen in time for the August date in less than eight weeks time.
Whyte said: “Because of the fact that I’ve gone back and accepted everything they wanted without no push-back or nothing, they’re thinking, ‘He’s a bit too up for this one.’
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“But I wanna go to war, I wanna fight the best people in my time and that’s it.
“He’s one of the best guys around, so I wanna fight him again. I wanna go in there, have a good slugfest with him and knock him out.”
Anthony Joshua beat Dillian Whyte in 2015Credit: AFP More