Anthony Joshua Makes Light Work of Charles Martin, Becomes World Heavyweight Champion

Anthony Joshua was already a star on the British Isles. But, on Saturday night, "AJ" announced his arrival on the world stage by dethroning "Prince" Charles Martin of his title to become the IBF world heavyweight champion.

It only took a round and a half for Joshua to dispatch the American titleholder, adding to the Olympic boxing gold medal he picked up in the London Olympics back in 2012. This is the 15th of 16 fights which has seen the six foot six inch heavyweight emerge victorious within three rounds—the one omission being his seventh round TKO of long-time rival Dillian Whyte.

Martin, who earned his world title in strange circumstances when Ukrainian opponent Vyacheslav Glazkov went down in the third round with a knee injury, talked a good game before the fight and was unbeaten before Saturday's showdown in front of a sold-out O2 Arena in London.

The St. Louis, Missouri, native also possessed an impressive record of KO wins before Saturday with 21 of his 23 wins coming by way of stoppage. He was also the first awkward southpaw opposition for Joshua to face since his 2012 Olympics final against Italian Roberto Cammarelle.

In the pre-fight preamble, Joshua's now-fellow British world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury doubted AJ's credentials in being ready for a world title shot, branding him "useless". In fact, Fury actually bet £1,000 on Martin to upset the bookmakers. But, the Gypsy King ended up losing his money emphatically.

Pensive and patient, both men treated the first round as a chance to feel out their opponent and assess the other's timing in a largely uneventful first stanza. However, Joshua upped the pace in the second round and set Martin up with a long, lead hand jab to unleash a hellacious right hand to knock Martin down for the first time in his career.

Taking his time to regain his foundations, Martin slowly rose on a count of nine seconds to throw himself back into the fray. However, Joshua threw the same simple one-two combination to floor Martin for the second and final time.

Bizarrely, Martin, sat on his backside laughing in disbelief at what had just happened, slowly rose to his feet but either mistimed the ten count provided by Belgian referee Jean Pierre van Imschoot or deliberately stalled to avoid taking further punishment from the Watford-born Joshua who was clearly in imperious form. After just four minutes and 28 seconds of action, Joshua added the IBF world title to his WBC International, Commonwealth and British heavyweight championships.

It was a patient and mature performance from Joshua, whose performance in the early rounds against Whyte raised eyebrows as he fought with his heart rather than his head, getting caught with a big punch which could have ended the fight if Whyte had followed up with accurate blows. This was the development in ringcraft that most critics, who were not entirely sold on Joshua's present abilities, wanted to see.

After the contest, Joshua said in his in-ring interview: "I come to knock people out and give value for money. It's all about power and precision – I told you what I was going to do. I'm now going to keep on grinding, keep on working hard and I'll fight them all."

Tyson Fury, Joshua's biggest disbeliever, is one of those men who want a slice of AJ's action.

Fury won the WBA, WBO, IBO and lineal heavyweight titles with his unanimous decision victory over Wladimir Klitschko at the tail end of 2015, before dropping the IBF title Joshua has just won due to not fighting the organisation's mandatory challenger Glazkov in favour of the Klitschko rematch.

The Gypsy King has his hands full already with that aforementioned rematch which is slated to take place in Manchester, England, on July 9th. However, he will not relent in talking out against Joshua in the interim.

Learning of the bet Fury placed against him and his subsequent comments over Twitter, Joshua defiantly told the BBC: "I'm going to walk through Tyson Fury when's he's ready. I'm not messing around believe you me. Scrap all this 16 fight nonsense. I'm training hard and I mean business. I'm here to stay and I want to make some real noise in this division.

"I have got skill. I'm not just some beach body boxer. I train hard and this is just the result—I'm the IBF champion and I'm very, very happy. I'm happy for the UK as well.

"George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier fought; Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis all fought. Me, Tyson Fury and David Haye… We have to fight. We can't get through this whole era without fighting, that would be silly, we will get it on at the right time. It's just bound to happen at some stage.

"I'm not going to lower myself to Fury's level. He talks like a kid. He's predictable really. He should be happy I won."

Joshua's world title shot—as well as Martin's short-lived title reign—is a symptom of the fractured nature of boxing's different global organisations having various, respected world championships. But, both Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes all benefitted from the splintered state of heavyweight boxing to enjoy long tenures as world champions so this is nothing new.

Whatever way you look at it, Joshua has become the fifth fastest boxer to become the world heavyweight champion—joining the likes of luminaries Joe Louis, Joe Frazier and Vitali Klitschko to do it inside three years and beating the likes of George Foreman, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis who did it beyond those three years but within four. In fact, Joshua has earned the world title with just 34 rounds of boxing to his credit.

Joshua is also now one of three men to earn the world heavyweight championship while still being the reigning Olympic heavyweight gold medallist, joining Frazer and Leon Spinks in that supremely exclusive club.

There isn't much talk of Joshua's next opponent yet. But, there are plenty of boxers circling the new world heavyweight champion. Whatever happens next, it'll be must-see TV with boxing's newest worldwide superstar taking to the ring.