Boxing: Anthony Joshua ran circles around Kubrat Pulev in World Heavyweight bout

Anthony Joshua manhandled Kubrat Pulev and ultimately knocked him out in the ninth round of their world heavyweight championship fight at The SSE Arena, Wembley, on Saturday night.

Joshua on three different occasions floored his challenger, Pulev, heavily twice in the final round ending the fight with a wicked right hand to retain his IBF, WBA, and WBO titles.

The powerful performance from Joshua would in every way get the attention of Tyson Fury who he needs to fight to decide an undisputed champion in 2021.

The WBC champion, Tyson Fury, holds the only major belt outside of Joshua’s grip and a meeting between them would be the biggest match in world boxing.

And after giving a thrilling display in front of a crowd of 1,000 people including boxing great Floyd Mayweather, Joshua moved closer to making it a reality.

This victory came in his first fight since his rematch after a shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr a year ago.

The bout would have ended explosively in the third round but his challenger, Pulev, was stubborn and determined to continue when he was felled, but there was no escaping the eventual knockout.

Joshua landed a series of jabs and Pulev clipped him back with a left hook but the world heavyweight champion smashed Pulev with a perfectly-timed right hand in the third round that badly hurt his challenger.

He then hunted Pulev down, desperate for the knockout, and landed a brutal barrage of uppercuts and hooks which eventually toppled the Bulgarian to the canvas.

It seemed likely to be all over but Pulev was rescued by the bell after which he threw an illegal shot that fizzed past the champion’s face.

Joshua regained his composure and, in the fifth, cracked home a big right hand which didn’t budge Pulev, who ended the round strongly after some feisty back-and-forth trash talk.

Three swift uppercuts from Joshua hurt Pulev in the seventh but still the tough Bulgarian would not cede ground.

Pulev managed to land his best punch, a straight right hand, in the eighth but Joshua closed the show in the ninth with another devastating uppercut which crumpled Pulev to the floor for the second time.

Joshua would be shocked to see that Pulev still got back up but a right hand from Joshua sent him flying backwards and split his lip bloodily, ending the fight in a flash.