Charles Martin entered as anonymous and he left anonymous. The only difference is he left without the title he had entered with. The fight lasted under five minutes. To call it a fight implies two people were involved and either could have won. yet from the 1st bell Martin looked unsteady, and possibly a small gust of wind may have even knocked him over. After a fairly eventful 1st round, the tornado that is Anthony Joshua came out and it wasn’t just Charles Martin he blew away. The 28,000 strong partisan were shocked at how quickly Joshua dispatched of his opponent, and there was a sense that this was the start of something special.
For the first time in the best part of twenty years, Britain, and the world had a reason to be excited about the heavyweight division. With the retirement of PPV King Floyd Mayweather, the dethroning of Klitschko and Anthony Joshua’s gold medal. The memory of Chisora and Haye’s disgraceful actions and Audley Harrison’s embarrassing career being a distant memory. Not only that but also the shadow that the more popular lightweights have cast over the glory division of boxing, has at least temporarily been removed. Were you aware that Pacquiao fought the very same night as Joshua?
To think that less than one year ago Floyd and Manny broke all PPV records, now one’s retired and the other is almost faded into obscurity. This as well as Joshua’s gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, and enthralling scrap with Dillian White has been a catalyst for the rise of the heavyweights. Even with Haye, Fury and Wilder, their own personalities (or in Wilder’s case lack of), means the public had no real role model. Yet the charming, Greek God like physique, and thousand watt smile Joshua possess give him global appeal. So his win over Martin will transcend the heavyweight division, and brings a very exciting next 12 months to the division. Had Charles Martin won, he would have arrived anonymous, left antonymous and took with him the belt and possibly the future of the heavyweight division.