Anthony Joshua sent Robert Helenius to sleep with a huge right hand to record his first victory inside the distance in two years.
The Watford powerhouse closed the show in the eighth round to set up a massive super fight with Deontay Wilder in January while his Finnish foe received oxygen on the canvas in dramatic scenes.
Helenius opened up the fight on the front foot looking to gain his former sparring partner’s respect early doors with a couple of clubbing blows. But Joshua remained composed and picked his punches though a tentative opener allowed Helenius to take advantage of his superior reach as he established his jab from range.
In the second round, Joshua began to set up the overhand right with a jab to the body to drop his adversary’s guard and he was inches away from landing the combination flush seventy seconds into the second stanza. More activity from AJ in the third as he doubled his jab and edged his feet in.
But Joshua’s tentative approach didn’t fare well with the crowd, who booed and whistled at the halfway stage of the third round. Heading into the quarter-way mark it seemed more like a sparring session than a fight but there was always a feeling that it could spark into life at any moment.
A solid right hand from Joshua caught Helenius’ attention early in the fourth, who was quick to hold as he sunk into the ropes. In the fifth, Joshua began to turn the screw upping the tempo with some level-changing combinations as he mixed his shots to the body and head.
Helenius repeatedly leant back as Joshua fired his jab to the head, presenting a clear opening for the right hand but it didn’t come in the fifth. At the halfway mark, it was more of the same from Joshua, feinting, slipping and keeping his shape but not landing with the same spitefulness of old.
It seemed at times that he was overthinking his work which is to be expected when adjusting to a new coach in Derrick James. At the end of the seventh, Joshua exclaimed “It’s hard to find the right hand” but moments later he did. Starching his foe with a shot from the heavens against the ropes.
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