Anthony Joshua reveals that he took to the ring against Alexander Povetkin despite having the flu

NIGERIAN-born world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Oluwafenmi Oluseni Joshua has revealed that he won last Saturday's fight despite suffering from a serious bout of flu which threatened to derail him.

On Saturday, Joshua, 28, despatched Russian challenger Alexander Povetkin with a seventh round knock-out at Wembley Stadium in London. After seeing off an initial flurry from the Russian, Joshua, who holds the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), International Boxing Organisation (IBO) and WBO belts, knocked out his man and has now won his last 22 fights.

However, Joshua revealed that before the fight, he felt like a gust of wind would knock him down due to a bout of flu. He added that a debilitating head cold led to him being worried he would not be in condition to perform properly at Wembley.

Joshua said: “I’ve been ill this last week and you know when you start thinking to yourself these signs are bad but I pulled through. It hit me last week Friday and I had it over the weekend and I thought by Wednesday it would be gone but I only started feeling better on Friday.

“It was still there in my head, I had a head cold and I felt like a heavy gust of wind could knock me over. However, I felt this way in training camp and still sparred 15 good rounds, so I’ve got one geezer in the ring who will fade sooner or later, so let’s just get on with it.”

With this victory, Joshua is looking for an opponent for his April 13, 2019 date at Wembley and promoter Barry Hearn has warned Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren that a 50-50 purse split is not acceptable if they two boxers are to meet. Joshua could face Deontay Wilder or Dillian Whyte in his next fight and there is also the prospect of a bout with Tyson Fury.