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Topics: UK News, World News, Olympics, Mo Farah, Anthony Joshua, Boxing, Sport, TV and Film
Tom Wood
Topics: UK News, World News, Olympics, Mo Farah, Anthony Joshua, Boxing, Sport, TV and Film
Ahead of his blockbuster heavyweight championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk this evening, here’s a timely reminder that Anthony Joshua once absolutely smashed Mo Farah in a running race, showing his blistering pace and proving he’s a man of many talents.
OK, so it’s worth pointing out right at the beginning that Mo Farah is one of the greatest distance runners of all time, but he’s not exactly a short sprint specialist.
However, Joshua isn’t exactly known for being fleet of foot either.
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He fights at the top weight class, and you might think that his size and mass would hinder him in a straight sprint.
It didn’t stop him accelerating away from Farah over 100m on the 2012 reality TV show Superstars, though.
If they’d added perhaps another 9,900 metres to the course, Farah would certainly have won, but it’s still surprising that Joshua managed to beat the Olympic champion in any kind of race.
The TV show, which was a huge hit in the 1970s brought back for a new audience, saw sport stars pitted against one another across various disciplines to see who was the best overall.
Thankfully there wasn’t a segment in which Farah then had to box against the two-time world heavyweight champion.
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Joshua emerged from the series as the overall champion, having just claimed the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics as well.
In the end, he ran a time of 11:53 seconds, which would have been good enough for seventh in the Olympic final of that year.
You have to admit, the lad can shift.
Farah, for his part, came third.
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Anyway, his career has come a long way from light entertainment programmes, and over the intervening decade he’s risen to the very top of world boxing, despite a few setbacks along the way.
Tonight, he’ll look to recover from one of those by defeating Usyk in Saudi Arabia to regain the heavyweight straps that the Ukrainian fighter deservedly took after their first match.
It’s a huge fight for both participants, but particularly for Joshua, who has also tasted defeat against massive underdog Andy Ruiz Jr. in the past.
Lose tonight and there will almost certainly be questions about where his career goes next.
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However, a win would potentially set the stage for one of the biggest fights of all time against fellow Briton Tyson Fury.
Fury claims to have retired, but the vast sums involved with such a fight, arguably the biggest in boxing history, might turn the undefeated champion’s head.
First, Joshua has to get past Usyk, who will represent a stiffer challenge than Farah did over the distance.