STAR PREVIEW: Anthony Joshua v Alexander Povetkin

Heavyweight superstar Anthony Joshua has proven to be unstoppable so far during his professional career, with 21 wins from 21 fights, and the sky’s the limit ahead of his Wembley double header.

Later this year a fight with Deontay Wilder, and the chance to take his WBC belt, is on the cards but first he has to get past Alexander Povetkin, and that looks set to be his toughest task yet.

Povetkin has lost just once in a 35-fight career, that coming the great Wladimir Klitschko in October 2013. Since then he has won eight consecutive fights and never been stopped to date. Included in that run is a knockout victory over David Price on the undercard when Joshua was beating Joseph Parker.

Joshua was a comfortable winner over Parker – the judges’ scorecards were 118-110, 119-109, and 118-110 at the end of the night – but a price of just 1/10 for victory, or 4/11 to win by KO TKO or Disqualification feels short. Povetkin took Klitschko 12 rounds and then had David Price down twice before a fifth-round knockout despite the face he caught a big left hook early on.

Anthony Joshua v Alexander Povetkin
Saturday, 22:00
Live on Sky Sports Box Office

Joshua would need to be winning this by knockout to justify a potential matchup against Deontay Wilder, but Povetkin has the power and quality to take this a few rounds at least. The 3/1 on Joshua winning this in rounds 4-6 could be the best way to try and get value from the fight if the Englishman’s punching power proves to be too much for the Russian eventually.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK JOSHUA TO WIN IN ROUNDS 4-6 5pts at 7/2 with starsports.bet

---

PROFIT/LOSS SINCE JAN 1 2017: PROFIT 98.29 points
(not including Premier League ante-post)