Anthony Joshua re-enters heavyweight soap opera with everything to lose

On Saturday night at Wembley Arena, Anthony Joshua returns to British boxing after a lively exile in foreign lands and a year of talks, dates and flops.

Joshua defends his heavyweight titles - he holds three versions - for the first time in his second reign against Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev, but once again the twinkling fake diamond belts are just tacky camouflage for the real prize of a planned unification fight with Tyson Fury. That fight has a storyline all of its own, a mix of fable, horror and comedy. However, if Joshua loses there is no story.

The last time Joshua fought in Britain was under the arch at Wembley stadium on a wet night in September 2018, he retained his world title in style, ruining the Russian Alexander Povetkin in seven rounds of old-fashioned mayhem. Joshua was full of risks back then, fearless, a bit stupid in all the right ways that make heavyweights so attractive.

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Then it went wrong in June of last year at Madison Square Garden in New York; it was seven rounds again, Joshua was over four times and left truly vacant on his feet. His titles gone, his invincibility punctured by a smiling Mexican with a wobbly belly called Andy Ruiz.

“It was a great fight for all the wrong reasons,” said Joshua. “I had to get back in love with boxing, go back to what I love about it.” He did, going quiet, putting in the old-fashioned hours.

It was a painful journey of rediscovery, especially for a fighter with no fear. It is a hard thing for boxers to discover that they can lose so violently and can get hurt and dropped and stopped. All jokes about Ruiz being the buffet champion added to the sour experience.

There was redemption in December of last year when Ruiz arrived ten pounds heavier, weighed down with extra gold chains and diamonds and with no fire in his giant belly. The new Joshua boxed a perfect shut-out, no risk, few thrills and then he had his belts back. Ruiz was poor, Joshua calculated and then, just as the crazy talk of fights worth billions had started, the lockdown shut down the Joshua machine.

Earlier this year there was bold talk of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the same stadium and ring used by Muhammad Ali in 1974 to perform magic when he stopped the world and knocked out George Foreman. It was not a hoax, there was an offer, a serious offer to fill that ancient ring of fighting ghosts.

Then in February, Fury walloped Deontay Wilder in seven nasty rounds to win the one belt not in Joshua’s possession; talk of a super fight worth hundreds of millions of dollars between the two British boxers started that night. Again, this was not a hoax.

And then it was lockdown. The Fury and Wilder trilogy was scheduled for July in Las Vegas, Joshua and Pulev was scheduled for Tottenham stadium in June and they all collapsed. The sport was silent for three dark and cold months. There was then serious talk of two fights between Fury and Joshua next year, a double that was presented as fact, but has been gently exposed as hope. It has been a year of talking and Joshua has heard too much.

“Fury says this and says that,” said Joshua. “How can I plan for a fight? It’s this guy, it’s that guy and then it’s another guy - that’s all I have heard from him. I need more than that to start to get ready for a fight with him.” He accepted Pulev, the danger and the cash reduction because he knows a fight now might be critical preparation for any big fight early next year. This is a solid fight, a difficult night if Joshua fights like a fool.

This Saturday in front of 1,000 lucky souls - tickets priced between £100 and £1,000 sold in minutes - he will get exactly what he needs against Pulev; they were meant to fight in October 2017 before Pulev withdrew ten days before the first bell. It’s a pity that fight stalled because Pulev then was a real danger, a bit fresher and Joshua was far more naive.

And so on Saturday night the heavyweight soap opera will continue in a London ring and with a distant bounty of gold glowing like a tantalising mirage in an exotic location. Remember, nothing is ever simple in the heavyweight business and Joshua, after Ruiz, has intimate knowledge of what can go wrong in a fight you are not meant to lose.