So Anthony Joshua has made it 22 fights undefeated and reaffirmed his status as the world’s leading heavyweight. It wasn’t easy, some might even say he made hard work of it, but Povetkin was tough and talented and took some stopping. When Joshua did stop him, it was brutally clean and clinical.

The unified heavyweight world champion retained his four belts after a grueling seven-round mandatory title defence against veteran Russian.

The British star dropped Povetkin with a brutal assault in the seventh round and then floored the WBA mandatory challenger again to signal a sudden and dramatic ending to his title defence.