Anthony Joshua powers to ninth round knock out win over Kubrat Pulev
over 4 years in The Irish Times
Anthony Joshua produced a devastating ninth-round stoppage of Kubrat Pulev to start the second defence of his reign as world heavyweight champion in style.
The English fighter dominated throughout at Wembley’s SSE Arena and a stunning combination finally saw off the valiant efforts of the challenger, who had been down three times before at the fourth time of asking could not make the count.
It meant Joshua retained his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts and more importantly stays on track for a twin-fight with Tyson Fury in 2021.
Pulev had talked the talk in the build-up to this fight and insisted he had been waiting for a second chance at Joshua after he was forced to pull out of a 2017 meeting due to a shoulder injury.
But after putting the challenger down twice in the third, Joshua did the same again in the ninth and the final knockout blow proved too much for the 39-year-old to come back from.