Anthony Joshua continued his quest to return to the top of the heavyweight division with a dominant five-round win over Otto Wallin.
Joshua busted up and hurt Sweden’s Wallin, whose corner pulled him out after five punishing rounds.
Wallin gave Tyson Fury a competitive fight back in 2019 but he could not handle Joshua.
A thumping backhand crashed into Wallin’s stomach, a body shot that he felt.
Joshua struck a right to the head. He was sharper on his feet too, darting out of range before Wallin could reach him with an attempt to counter.
Joshua crunched a right hook in, that Wallin just caught on a glove.
Wallin tapped in his jab, trying to use his southpaw stance to frustrate Joshua.
But that didn’t work for him. Joshua sent another straight right to the body, before firing a brace of punches to the head.
To begin the fifth round Joshua stuck in hard shots, to underscore his near-total control. Soon Wallin’s feet looked uncertain beneath him.
AJ hinted that he’d throw his right to the head, and heaved it to the body.
Then he connected with a ferocious two-punch combination. A cross caught Wallin setting up a huge left hook that hurt the Swede.
Wallin staggered away and Joshua was on him, attacking ferociously.
He did damage that saw a dejected Wallin return to his corner, where his coach did not let him back out for another round.
After losing to Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua left Rob McCracken to link up with Robert Garcia. His first two fights of this year were with coach Derrick James but for this fight he brought in Ben Davison, who trained Fury for several fights including his bout with Wallin.
“I can’t grade my performance. My performance team will judge me and the fans at home will have a lot to say, so I’ll leave it up to them,” Joshua said afterwards.
“Not a throwback fight, just another fight. It was just another day in the office.
“All I want to be is victorious for as long as I can.”