BoxRec

What do you think about the stoppage at the end of Joshua vs Klitchko?

Wlad went down from really hard uppercut and was clearly hurt. He got up only to go down a second time soon after. He got up again and Joshua was shooting on all cylinders and chased him to the ropes. Wlad was not throwing anything back but was defending himself well. One minute to go on the round and the referee stopped the fight.

There are couple of ways the fight could have gone without the stoppage. First is the one where Joshua gets a good shot in and finishes the fight with KO.

Another way it could have gone is Wlad survives to fight in the 12 round against potentially gassed Joshua.

In my own opinion the championship fight should not be decided by the referee.

How do you see the stoppage?

Was it good or not?

Great stoppage! Kiltschkov was done!!!

Hard to say, but taking shots in heavyweight division is no joke

The right call imo.

Wlad didn't look like he was going to get out of that corner. AJ had him pinned. Wlad wasn't throwing anything back and was clearly still hurt from that uppercut.
If the stoppage wouldn't have come at that point, it would have no more than 10 seconds later of AJ throwing bombs. If you're the responsible man in the ring, you don't let that happen.
Good stoppage. No way Wlad was getting out of that.

Wlad was badly hurt, huge upper cut and 2 knock downs. I didn't think he was gonna get up from the seconded he looked very shakey. Big guts from him to get up from that.

Then Joshua has him pinned and stuff isn't landing clean, but look up to the build up to that point.

The stoppage was good, guys need to give the ref a break there

Ossyrules wrote:Wlad was badly hurt, huge upper cut and 2 knock downs. I didn't think he was gonna get up from the seconded he looked very shakey. Big guts from him to get up from that.

Then Joshua has him pinned and stuff isn't landing clean, but look up to the build up to that point.

The stoppage was good, guys need to give the ref a break there

Yes !

Wlad went down 2 times and was hurt. Ref protected bim from worse damage.

The ref jumped in when a big left hook landed on the gloves of Klitchko. He would have survived imo.

Even though Wlad had been knocked down twice, he was protecting himself just fine. I could see if Joshua landed something big while he had him pinned against the ropes, but there were no significant punches landed while he had him there. BS stoppage imo. Joshua was gassed, and if they let it go on, who knows...maybe Wlad would have KO'd Joshua in the 12th. I guess as long as Wlad isn't bitching about it, I guess I shouldn't. Credit to Wlad for giving credit to AJ for the win, and not making excuses.

Jip wrote:Wlad went down 2 times and was hurt. Ref protected bim from worse damage.

Yes, Joshua would have likely finished Wlad anyway, but the ref selected a weird time for stoppage. At that time, Wlad showed ability to protect himself just fine. No damage was being inflicted. The ref should have waited for at least one decent punch to land.

boxing_rocks wrote:

Jip wrote:Wlad went down 2 times and was hurt. Ref protected bim from worse damage.

Yes, Joshua would have likely finished Wlad anyway, but the ref selected a weird time for stoppage. At that time, Wlad showed ability to protect himself just fine. No damage was being inflicted. The ref should have waited for at least one decent punch to land.

I think what we see and when the ref decided to stop it is slightly skewed. He landed a couple of shots and the ref begins to move in having made his decision then Joshua throws more that Kitschko avoids and blocks but the ref was already stopping him by that point.

No complaints about the stoppage. I do think it's not out of the question that Wlad could've possibly gotten himself together and come back, but he was badly hurt and there was still a lot of time left in the round so it was probably the right call.

I have to admit that at the moment the ref jumped in I was thinking that AJ might gas again and the 12th would be very interesting.

The stoppage was understandable. Klitschko didn't complain either. He knew he didn't have enough left to turn it around again. He was more upset about not taking his chance in the 6th and 7th rounds when the stoppage was there for him.

Wlad was celarly hurt. Fact.
Joshua was gassed. That's another fact. He really sucks at this deparment. One of the worst I've seen in a long time.

Wlad was done at the time. But we really don't know for how long Joshua can keep up with that pace..With that really awful, miserable conditioning..

But the stoppage seems to be the right call in the end.

Ridiculous for anybody to critisize the ref unless of course you want to see Wlad completely splattered on the floor and damaged.Wlad was badly hurt and needed to be saved and thankfully he was.

2 times down in one round and not defending any more against a 250 pound boxer, yes, that's a good stoppage.
Even stopping earlier could have been considered.

Joshua did the right thing after the 2nd knockdown by throwing a volume of punches basically giving the ref no choice but to stop it.

I rewatched it again.
Changed my mind..Premature stoppage.

Nothing landed significantly by joshua. And he was fading again. Gassing.
There was a minute till the end of the round. But only ~10 seconds left for joshua.
All Wlad has to do was hang on for 5-10 more seconds..

I thought that last flurry was non effective, so no i wouldn't have stopped it. But, 2 heavy knockdowns i'm not screaming at the ref here.

Yeah, the 2 uppercuts that lead to the knockdowns were vicious. You definitely can't fault the ref for being a little quick to stop the fight after seeing a guy take 2 shots like that.

It was a little quick, but not awful.

Was a good stoppage. Wlad showed guts and went out on his shield but it's better a couple punches too early than a couple of punches too late especially at heavyweight.

Sometimes classic fights are created by bad refereeing. Diego Corrales should've been stopped in Corrales - Castillo 1, but the referee was way too liberal about giving Corrales chances, and it gave Corrales the opportunity to be a hero. The referee was right to stop Klitschko when he did, but as fatigued as both fighters were, and as capable as they both were of dropping each other with any given punch, Wlad still might have been able to turn the tables if he were given more chances. It wouldn't have been worth it, though, to let Joshua and Klitschko potentially ruin each other just to bring the fight to a more conclusive end.