Anthony Joshua had warned us all not to blink and those in the O2 Arena who disobeyed their new world heavyweight champion missed one of the most almighty triumphs in the history of British boxing.
Two of those massive Joshua right hand blows sent Prince Charles Martin first tumbling down, then crashing off his pretender’s throne.
This warrior nation of ours now has not one but two world heavyweight champions
So certain were the promoters of this IBF title fight that Joshua would re-write the record books by dismantling the American belt-holder, that moments after it happened large leaves of confetti bearing his picture and the mantra ‘And The New’ came fluttering down from the roof above the ecstatic crowd.
Not only a new champion, as it happens, but a new era of heavyweight prize-fighting
Tyson Fury, oddly not at ringside to perform his usual antics, began the process by ending the seemingly eternal Klitschko monopoly.
Now Joshua has made a massive, intimidating statement with his fist and followed it by saying: 'I’m only a quarter of the way towards becoming the undisputed world champion. I need the other belts. Tyson Fury has a couple. He keeps calling me out. Wherever he is, tell him I’m ready.’
Martin had entered the ring wearing a crown but this was the coronation of Joshua. Not just as a world champion but as exactly what his promoter Eddie Hearn has been predicting: ‘The world’s next sporting super-star.’
How nice to add that a nice guy is coming first. One who keeps his promises, too. Even when confronted by a dangerous, undefeated southpaw knockout merchant.
‘I told you I was going to come out punching, he said. ‘I told you. This is me.’
And how great this is.
Martin barely survived the first round as Joshua opened up with stiff left jabs and the first half dozen of those thunderous rights.
The second was barely into its second minute as Joshua laid him waste. The most brutal of straight rights sat Martin down. An even more concussive right hook dropped him again.
As he tried to rise again the Belgian referee told him nothing more was required of him
Martin protested the end had come too quickly but it was a hollow gesture. He heads for home with the millions it took Hearn to lure him to England for his first defence.
Quite an investment. A fortune awaits Joshua.
We once went a century without a British world heavyweight champion. Now we have two. And Joshua, having scaled the mountain as 16-fight novice, looks ready to becoming the first undisputed heavyweight king from anywhere since Lennox Lewis.
Never mind that he’s only once gone more than four rounds – and then only as far as the seventh – and is still learning.
Read more: Dailymail.com
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