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Nigerians React As Joshua Knocks Out Pulev To Retain World Heavyweight Titles

December 13, 2020

The fight is Joshua's first since reclaiming his belts from Andy Ruiz in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.

British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua, knocked out Bulgarian boxer, Kubrat Pulev, in the ninth round of their world title bout at the SSE Arena, Wembley, to retain his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.

The fight is Joshua's first since reclaiming his belts from Andy Ruiz in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.

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Both boxers were cautious in the first two rounds with Joshua using more of his jabs.

Pulev has been unbeaten in his last eight fights since losing via knockout to Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. The 39-year-old won 28 of his previous 29 with 14 by way of knockout.

South African referee Deon Dwarte stopped the fight after the ninth round knocks down.

Joshua's victory sets up a potential all-British heavyweight unification bout against Tyson Fury in 2021.

Both fighters come into the bout with one loss apiece. Joshua lost his only fight in a shocking defeat to Andy Ruiz in 2019 while Pulev's only loss was a fifth-round knockout loss in the hands of Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

British-born boxer of Nigerian descent, Lawrence Okoli, also recorded a second-round knockout win over Nikodem Jezewski to claim the vacant WBO International cruiserweight title.

Okolie knocked down his opponent twice in the first round, forcing the referee to call off the fight in the 1:45 minute after his second-round knockdown of Jezewski.

Okolie is on course for a WBO cruiserweight title fight next year.

Meanwhile, celebrities have taken to their social media pages to congratulate the boxing unified heavyweight champion of the world, Anthony Joshua, over his win in his match against Kubrat Pulev, Punch reports.

Joshua's pal, DJ Cuppy, daughter of billionaire business Femi Otedola, went on Twitter to congratulate the champ. She tweeted, "WHOOP! Congrats to @AnthonyFJoshua and my family! …Where are we going for Christmas champ?"

Legendary Nigerian beatmaker Don Jazzy also took to his Twitter account to react to Joshua's win. Fondly called Don Baba J, he tweeted, "Ahh already. That's my boy. I trained him well, lol."

In his tweet, prolific rapper, Vector, revealed that he has never seen a man receive so many jabs in his life. "I have never seen a man take this many uppercuts. Him lower jaw na usher wey Dey receive incoming 'hands'.

Music executive, Bankuli, took to his Instagram page to post a picture of the champion and captioned it, "And still standing tall @anthonyjoshua knocked Pulev down thrice."

The funnyman, Owen G, also used his Instagram account to congratulate Joshua over his win. He posted a picture of the boxing champion with the caption, "Congrats AJ @anthonyjoshua, dem nor reach. Eba must always overpower bread and tea."

Popular English broadcaster, Piers Morgan, apparently impressed with Joshua's performance took to his Twitter account to congratulate him. "BOOM! Brilliant KO performance by ⁦Anthony Joshua – against one helluva tough opponent in Pulev," Morgan wrote.

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