Photo from @AnthonyFJoshua

Dominic Breazeale was proved correct in his assertion that he’s no Charles Martin, but that didn’t stop Anthony Joshua knocking him out in round seven of their IBF heavyweight title fight this evening at London’s O2 Arena.

Breazeale had proudly worn the claim – that he was no Martin – as if it were a world title belt in the weeks leading up to the fight, so keen was he to distance himself from the last unbeaten American to perform a stop, drop and roll at the feet of Joshua. Yet, whatever the journey, the destination remained the same. Breazeale, like Martin in April, ended the night on the canvas with Joshua stood over him.

There was, admittedly, an air of inevitability to it all from the moment the first bell rang (the cynical among us would trace this air of inevitability back to when the fight was announced, I suppose). Joshua was quicker to the punch, be it a jab or a hook, which he used to good effect, and Breazeale’s defence – essentially both forearms positioned in front of his face – was easily penetrated.

Indeed, by round two Joshua had given up trying to work his way around the guard and was now content to just punch through it. It worked, too; such is his strength, he was able to shift Breazeale by simply punching his forearms, gloves and occasionally the sweet spot.

Joshua tried time and time again to land the perfect straight right, but it was the uppercut which made the first major impression on Breazeale. Thrown short and with an element of surprise, it cracked the tip of the American’s chin, buckled his legs, and an impromptu tour of the ring, ending in the neutral corner, followed. Joshua, of course, seized his moment. He hunted him down. It was, after all, round two, the round in which he’d ended Martin’s hilariously brief reign as IBF titleholder three months ago. Breazeale, an unbeaten America, would surely go the same way.

Well, not quite. Marked up, battered, and unquestionably on his way out, Breazeale nevertheless showed impressive powers of recuperation and, more than that, a fighter’s heart to get through the barrage and, better yet, pose a few questions in subsequent rounds.

No, he wasn’t necessarily racking up points, nor was he giving Joshua much to fear, but the man from Alhambra, California was at least showing stickability. He wasn’t seeking a way out. He hadn’t given up.

There were subtle indications of confidence, too. Take, for example, the moment at the end of round four when he bumped into Joshua, smiled and gestured in a way that suggested things were starting to heat up. No more than a small moral victory, for a man whose best wins have come against Amir Mansour and Fred Kassi, it was perhaps the best we could hope for; Breazeale, if nothing else, was still upright.

By the fifth round, however, the fight had slipped into a pattern. A worrying one for Breazeale, a potentially frustrating one for Joshua. You see, no matter how hard and often he seemed to land on his opponent, Joshua, 18-0 (18 knockouts), couldn’t muster the finish the 16,000 fans in attendance had paid to witness. He’d hurt Breazeale and occasionally wobble him, that was no hard task, but the final shot, the coup-de-grace, eluded him throughout the first half of the fight.

It’s a mark of Joshua’s improvement, I guess, that he remained patient and switched on and didn’t panic in pursuit of The End. He’s a big man, after all, and big men have a habit of spontaneously combusting when unable to secure a conclusion they assumed would be straightforward following wave after wave of attack.

Those at ringside closely analysed Joshua for signs that his muscular arms and legs were getting stiff, or that his breathing had become heavy, or that his mind was riddled with doubt. But no such signs were apparent. Instead, Joshua, 26, remained sharp and accurate behind his jab, waited for his moment, which eventually arrived in the seventh, and then finally drained the last bit of resistance from Breazeale with a number of clubbing right hands, decking him twice in the process, before the onslaught was halted a minute and one second into the round.

In its correct context, that of a learning fight between two unbeaten former Olympians, Joshua’s pummeling of Breazeale, now 17-1 (15 KOs), should be enough to excite even the staunchest critics of the modern day heavyweight division. It suggests there are greater things to come, that the future is bright and that Anthony Joshua can really fight. But, attach a title to it, call these prospects ‘champion’ and ‘challenger’, and we are all entitled to want a little bit more.