British-Nigerian heavyweight boxer, Anthony Joshua knocked out Bulgarian boxer, Kubrat Pulev in the ninth round of their fight at the SSE Arena, Wembley to retain his WBA (super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles.
The fight was first of Joshua’s since reclaiming his belt from Andy Ruiz in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.
Pulev has been unbeaten in his last eight fights since losing through knockout to Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. The 39 years old won 28 of his previous 29 fights with 14 via knockout.
South African referee Deon Dwarte stopped the fight after the ninth round knockout in favour of Joshua.
Joshua’s victory sets up a potential all-British unification bout against Tyson Fury in 2021.
Joshua and Pulev came into the fight with one loss each. Joshua lost his only fight in a surprising defeat to Andy Ruiz in 2019 while Pulev’s only loss was a fifth-round knockout loss in the hand of Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
Nigerian British-born boxer, Lawrence Okolie also recorded a second-round knockout victory over Nikodem Jezewski to claim the vacant WBO International cruiserweight title.
Okolie knocked down his opponent twice in the first round, forcing the referee to call off the fight 1 minute 45 seconds after his second-round knockdown of Jezewski.
Lawrence is on course for a WBO cruiserweight title fight next year.
