It hadn’t been seen in all its devastating power in his last two fights.
But against Alexander Povetkin, Anthony Joshua truly found his Thor hammer of a right hand again.
With one detonation of it on Povetkin’s face, Joshua blew away the Russian’s resistance and seconds later he was celebrating stoppage No 21 of his remarkable career.
Joshua had been nowhere near as destructive against Carlos Takam or Joseph Parker in those two prior fights, though he says he went the distance with the Kiwi to prove to his critics he could go 12 rounds.
He answered them again on Saturday night after they questioned his power, making his point in emphatic fashion against someone who had never been stopped in his 35 previous fights.
“Twenty-two fights with 21 knock-outs,” grinned the unbeaten Joshua as he sat on Sunday with the WBA Super, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts laid out in front of him.
“I just listened to what people wanted. They said I couldn’t go 12 rounds. So instead of blitzing out Parker, I took my time and proved to people that I can.
“[But] Just because in my 21st fight, I decided not to knock him out, people said, ‘We need excitement’ , so I went in there against Povetkin with a different mindset. That’s what I mean when I say I found my right hand again, because that was the punch which started the end of the fight.”
That right in the seventh shattered Povetkin’s defences.
The Russian went down under a succession of combinations before referee Steve Gray waved it off when he bravely got up and Joshua unloaded again.
Povetkin had proved an awkward opponent in the six-and-a-half rounds before this stunning finale and caught Joshua too often with his overhand right. The former WBA champ also rocked Joshua at the end of the first with a left hook which bloodied the Englishman’s nose.
Still, Joshua was on top before his explosive finish and cleverly peppered Povetkin’s body with his jab to wear down the 39-year-old’s resistance.
The stoppage was even more commendable when Joshua revealed he had been struggling with flu for the past week.
“It hit me last week, Friday, and I only started feeling better on Friday,” he said. “I felt like a heavy gust of wind would knock me over. But I thought to myself that I felt this way in training camp and still sparred 15 good rounds, I’ve got one geezer in the ring who will fade sooner or later, so let’s just get on with it.”
As ridiculous as it sounds, Joshua needed that spectacular stoppage, because fans were beginning to switch off as a legacy of his displays against Takam and Parker.
Promoter Eddie Hearn admitted Povetkin had proved to be a harder sell and several thousand empty seats at Wembley were a testimony to that.
Those inside the national stadium loved Joshua’s check-out — although he suspects some of the one million-plus viewers who watched on TV tune in because they want to see if he will ever lose.
“The appeal is who’s going to be the man to beat me?” he said. “That’s what people are interested in: ‘Give Anthony the toughest of the toughest — get King Kong.’ So I have got to stay on top of my game.”
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