Anthony Joshua news LIVE: AJ and Robert Helenius weigh in ahead of heavyweight fight

“There’s a comparison of hitting something with a sledgehammer, or hitting something with a normal hammer a lot of times – you know, like when you hit a nail,” Frazer Clarke says.

So, which comparison applies to getting punched by Anthony Joshua? Well, both, it turns out.

“[The latter] is what it is with Joshua, then he’ll finish you off with a sledgehammer on the last shot,” Clarke tells The Independent. “Boom!”

Clarke knows what he is talking about, not just as an experienced boxer – unbeaten so far in his professional career – but as one who has first-hand experience of Joshua’s punching power. Clarke, 31, spent years training with “AJ” and followed his fellow Briton’s Olympic triumph at London 2012 with a medal of his own at Tokyo 2020.

Full article:

For his clash with Jermaine Franklin in April, Anthony Joshua came in at a career-heaviest weight of 255.4lbs (18.2 stone).

That was 11lbs heavier than the Briton weighed in for his previous fight, his second straight loss to Oleksandr Usyk.

Joshua also outweighed Frankin by 21lbs, and he would go on to beat the American on points at the O2 Arena.

Before Joshua returns to that venue tomorrow, how will his weight compare when he hits the scales today?

We’ll find out in a few hours...

You can watch our interview with Campbell in full, right here:

“I remember being in the gym at four or five years old,” Campbell Hatton says. “I’ll have been in there sooner; my nana always told me I used to have my nappy changed on the ring apron! I remember watching my dad and uncle train, messing about on the bags myself. There isn’t a time I can remember when boxing wasn’t a part of my life.”

Hatton, son of British boxing icon Ricky, speaks to The Independent about a life immersed in the sport, and his fight with Tom Ansell on the Joshua-Helenius card:

Joshua, Helenius and the undercard fighters will be weighing in this afternoon, with weigh-ins starting at 1pm BST.

Somewhere in a castle in Finland on Saturday night, five minutes removed from beating Mika Mielonen, Robert Helenius was posed a question. “Dillian Whyte is out; are you in?” Fighting Anthony Joshua in London on seven days’ notice was the proposition, and it was one that Helenius accepted with little hesitation. Four days on, he casually tells reporters in the English capital: “Nobody will remember a coward.”

Few would have labelled Helenius as such, had he decided not to take this fight with Joshua in the wake of Whyte’s failed drug test, but the Finn himself would have lived with regret.

That said, there was more to Helenius’s decision than just that. “Of course I think he’s vulnerable,” the 39-year-old says of Joshua, with whom he sparred in 2017. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I think I’d find easier jobs to do. I’m gonna take my chances and say now is the best time to fight him.”

Interview:

“I wasn’t supposed to lose, in my head. It just... I give my life to this game, man. I give everything, I swear to you. I give a lot. Even talking about it now, it just makes me feel like... choked up a bit.

“When you put everything into something, it’s not easy... The only thing we get credit for is winning, there’s no silver medal in boxing. And what I gave wasn’t enough.”

The Independent and other publications spoke to Joshua and Helenius yesterday, and you can read the first piece of content from those chats in the article just below.

The rest of what was covered in those interviews will be released later today and tomorrow, with Helenius’s thoughts arriving on The Independent at 8pm BST today, and Joshua’s following at 8pm tomorrow.

We’ll also have an exclusive interview with Campbell Hatton for you tomorrow, ahead of his undercard fight on Saturday.

Subject to change...

Anthony Joshua vs Robert Helenius (heavyweight)

Filip Hrgovic vs Demsey McKean (heavyweight)

Johnny Fisher vs Harry Armstrong (heavyweight)

Derek Chisora vs Gerald Washington (heavyweight)

Campbell Hatton vs Tom Ansell (super-lightweight)

George Liddard vs Bas Oosterweghel (middleweight)

Brandon Scott vs Louis Norman (featherweight)

Maisey Rose Courtney vs Gemma Ruegg (super-flyweight)

Joshua – 1/18

Helenius – 25/1

Draw – 17/2

Full odds via Betfair.