Crunching the numbers to find their meaning
Sunday 30 April 2017 00:03, UK
Anthony Joshua weighed in 10 pounds heavier than Wladimir Klitschko but his imposing physique was matched for the first time.
Joshua had been labelled 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' by his upcoming opponent but, at Friday's weigh-in, Klitschko took his shirt off and produced his own Terminator audition.
For the first time in his professional career, Joshua concluded the pre-fight ritual of measuring weight without having an obvious advantage over his opponent.
Joshua was 10 pounds heavier (17st 12lbs is his heaviest ever, albeit by less than one pound) but carrying the bigger frame contains risk.
"That's very heavy. That's a lot of muscle to move around for 12 rounds," explained Lennox Lewis, a former world heavyweight champion. "He has to watch his stamina.
[Joshua has] a lot of muscle to move around for 12 rounds. He has to watch his stamina.
"He'd better have a Plan B, and that's being able to box. It's difficult when you haven't been past the seventh round. It's a disadvantage.
"It's not about being strong, it's about having boxing knowledge - learning the different crafts."
Joshua's imposing frame has, so far, created an intimidation factor before the first bell even rings but now the pendulum is slowly creaking in the other direction. How will 17st of muscle fuel itself for more than a handful of initial explosions? Klitschko and his team, in a private media exchange on Thursday, clearly insinuated that they expect the younger man to drown when a quick knockout fails to materialise.
Klitschko, at 17st 2lbs, hasn't weighed so light since 2009. Accustomed, like Joshua, to being the biggest man in the ring, this newfound slim-line figure might prove to be an ingenious experiment from Dr Steelhammer. He plans to extend Joshua into uncharted territory post-seventh round, when a smaller body would be quicker and easier to shift.
Consider also; Klitschko was startlingly taller than Joshua when they stood nose to nose exchanging awkward pleasantries. Depending on Klitschko's stance, this creates the very real plausibility that Joshua will be punching upwards rather than horizontally. By no means a disaster, but definitely more difficult for Joshua than he has been used to, particularly if the target is hidden even further away behind Klitschko's battle-tested defence.
"I may not be the best, but what I do good, I do brilliantly," Joshua said this week. He has little option but to back his own style, and with good reason, for it has accounted for 18 opponents so far and yielded a world title.
He has looked like a Ferrari on a high-speed jaunt through the professional game thus far, but Joshua will be forced off road if Klitschko can expose him to be carrying too much muscle.
