By Gabriel Princewill-
Anthony Joshua stopped Carlos Takam in the 10th round, extending his record to a perfect 20 wins on Saturday night at the peincipality stadium in Wales.
Joshua’s victory was not undeserved, but it was dubious because the French challenger appeared fit to continue at the point of the referee’s intervention to halt the fight.
Up until that moment, Joshua had been winning the contest but was desperately struggling to dispose of a seasoned veteran whose resilience showed throughout the fight .
Fighting with a deep cut above his eye, Takam pressed forward with a tight defence and an innate determination to upset the odds. His optimism of wresting the IBF and WBA titles from Joshua was evident, but the British two belt champion never allowed him the opportunity to do so. When the fight was eventually stopped in the 10th round, Joshua was unleashing a barrage of punches on the shorter and stocky challenger, but Takam was ducking and dodging impressively, and didn’t look in danger of being stopped. It is intuitive to believe that the stoppage would have been forced by Joshua before the conclusion of that round or the subsequent round, but the intervention came prematurely for a world title fightthat had only two rounds to go.
Granted, Takam’s eye was in a precarious state, and the doctor had examined him closely on two separate occasions in the previous rounds. Yet, this did not warrant a stoppage at that late stage in the fight when the fighter was still game and intent on engaging Joshua until the last bell. This stoppage was reminiscent of another in 2004 when Thomas Bonin was inexplicably stopped in the 9th round of his contest against 2000 Olympic champion, Audley Harrison- it seemed to have all the hallmarks of a corrupt decision. The referees claim to have been protecting the interest of the beaten man appears untenable and lacks justification. Takam had been allowed to continue the fight for over seven rounds, he should have been allowed to fight on to a conclusive finish.
In a sport where like every other, individuals can stand to gain financially from betting odds, suspicious interventions like these should be avoided at all costs. Boxing referees seem to have a lot of discretion that allows them to mask their potential ulterior motives on big nights. Some bookmakers had odds of 20 to 1 for an AJ stoppage in the 10th round, the referee might have had £100 on that round, who is to know? Joshua was sailing to victory anyway, but it only takes one second to crash ten or eleven rounds of dominance. Takam was denied that opportunity by a referee who made an avowedly poor decision he can justify on subjective grounds.
Takam was always going to be a hard customer to subdue, he absorbed the best of Joshua’s blows but failed to ruin the champions rhythm enough to register a notable upset. Joshua retained the venom that has characterised all his prior 19 fights, but jab remains conspicuously shy, ponderous, and unassertive. His footwork still needs improvement, and there is a big question mark over his optimum fight weight. Eddie Hearns has promised three big fights in 2018, including American WBC tittle holder, Deontey Wilder. Next year is the year we found out what Joshua is really made up of. Joshua can potentially beat any heavyweight in the world right now, but I suspect he may still need a couple of fights before he is thrown in the deep end against the every best the division has to offer.