Wladimir Klitschko “interested” in Anthony Joshua rematch

Joshua went on to knock Klitschko down twice in the space of 30 seconds before the referee stopped the fight with the Ukrainian trapped on the ropes.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn revealed the heavyweight next plans to fight towards the year’s end.

As he publicly thanked his trainers, and the audience, he also saluted his opponent.

On the question of his next fight, Klitschko said: “I’m not gonna consider anything, I’m not gonna make any statements right now”.

“When there’s that many people in the arena, when I dropped Klitschko, that roar lifted my arms up as well and I thought “This is it, he’s not coming back”.

The Ukrainian was last seen in a ring in November 2015 when he was outboxed in a defeat by Joshua’s burly compatriot Tyson Fury, ending his nine-and-a-half-year reign as champion. But that was never going to be a problem. “Every time I come over here I get much love, so if I had to come over here, I would come with open arms, without hesitation”. Klitschko went down and Joshua raised his hands in triumph, only to take severe punishment as Klitschko came back to batter him late in the round. I’m learning under the bright lights. I say gentlemen, because boxing came from England.

“I was definitely exhausted, but I knew that I could recover and bounce straight back”.

Maybe he had a few quid on Joshua ending the bout in the 11th round, or he just got the ideal shot of the dramatic moment. I’m a little bit emotional now because I know I’ve got doubters who think I can’t do this and I can’t do that. But I dug deep.

There were no excuses and no tantrums from Klitschko. With that being said however, in the later rounds it was Joshua who began to pick up momentum as he began to land more and more significant strikes before ultimately picking up a 11th round TKO.

As for former world champion Frank Bruno, “the heavyweight division just got very exciting”, noting that “the performance of both men tonight was incredible”.

“It was really good, I had fun”. I was planning to do it. “All the respect to Anthony – congratulations”.

“I didn’t have an off-night”. I wish I’d been the victor. Tonight, boxing was the big victor.

Joshua fought back and later rounds slowed down after a pulsating start.

“It does take a lot of energy to hit someone hard and hurt them, so I was just fighting too eagerly”.

“Like I said before, it’s all about unification now”, Wilder told Sky Sports.