Britain’s Anthony Joshua retained his IBF and WBA world heavyweight titles when he stopped bloodied challenger Carlos Takam in the 10th round in Cardiff on Saturday.
Unbeaten champion Joshua, who has Nigerian parents, opened up a dreadful cut above 36-year Takam’s right eye in the fourth round and although the durable France-based Cameroonian battled on, the fight was halted after a series of heavy blows.
It was far from a straightforward night for Joshua in the Principality Stadium, however, as the 28-year-old appeared to suffer a broken nose in the second round after an accidental clash of heads with his shorter and lighter opponent.
Joshua’s victory in his first fight since his epic tussle with Wladimir Klitschko in April took his record to 20-0. Many fans were disappointed that the fight was stopped.
Beaten Takam also believed that the referee was not right to stop the fight. No, I don’t think so,” he says. “I don’t know why the referee stopped the match.
I respect the champion and the UK fans, they are great fans and I am happy to box here. I don’t why they stopped it. “I want a rematch, I make my preparations with 12 days to fight Anthony.
I want a rematch, I want to box him again, I want him, he is a great champion.” The two fighters fought for a combined total of around £11million.
Total fight revenues will be bigger than this figure. Joshua is going to take the bulk, as you would expect as he defends his belts. It will be around 90/10 in Joshua’s favour, meaning Joshua can be expected to earn £10million and Carlos Takam £750,000.
