Anthony Joshua retained his IBF, IBO and WBA heavyweight titles with a 10th-round stoppage of Carlos Takam in Cardiff on this day in 2017.
Returning for the first time since his victory over Wladimir Klitschko, the then 28-year-old Joshua wore down his little-known French opponent – an injury replacement for Kubrat Pulev – with his advantage in size, muscle, speed and power to retain his undefeated record.
In front of a world-record indoor fight crowd of an estimated 76,000 inside the Principality Stadium, many thought Joshua would back up his famous win over Klitschko with another routine victory, but it was far from it as he was tested in one of his toughest fights to date.
Joshua came into the fight over a stone heavier than Takam, weighing in at a career-heaviest 18st 2lb against his 16st 11lb opponent, and made much of his significant size advantage before he appeared to suffer a broken nose in the second round.
Joshua put Takam to the canvas in the fourth round and the latter was examined by the ringside doctor in the next after a significant cut appeared to open up by his left eye, an injury that would affect Takam throughout the fight.
The wound was looked at once again in the ninth round and the expected stoppage finally arrived after one minute and 34 seconds of round 10, but there were boos from the crowd, as many thought the fight was stopped too early.
Asked about the decision, Joshua said: “It was a good fight. I have no interest with what’s going on with the officials, that’s not my job.
“Unfortunately, the ref stopped it. I think people wanted to see Takam on the floor and I was getting there.”
Joshua went on to add the WBO belt with victory over Joseph Parker and successfully defend his titles against Alexander Povetkin before a shock loss to Andy Ruiz in June 2019 at Madison Square Garden.
Though he beat Ruiz in a rematch and followed up with a knockout of Pulev, back-to-back losses against Oleksandr Usyk left Joshua needing to rebuild his career at the top level.
