The untold story! How Klitschko let Joshua off the hook in title fight

For boxing fans around the globe, Anthony Joshua’s 11th round stoppage of former champion Wladimir Klitschko was undoubtedly his consecration as a genuine champ.

In what was regarded as the fight of the year, Joshua scored a TKO victory over Klitschko at a packed Wembley in April 29, 2017 to catapult himself to the pinnacle of the boxing world.

Three years later, Sky Sports x-rays the 60 seconds of chaos after round six as the moment that Wladimir Klitschko’s team wish they could “rewind and do again” to alter the course of history.

Nigerian-born Joshua came from behind to win the world heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium but there is still regret in the voices of Klitschko’s corner-men that they didn’t take advantage when they had AJ on the ropes.

Former champion Vitali Klitschko publicly took the blame for his instruction to his younger brother to stay cautious and patient. In the previous round, Wladimir had knocked Joshua down and put him on the verge of defeat. So why did Vitali say that? Is he just covering for his brother? What is the truth?

“I said: ‘Wladimir, you’ve got to finish this guy,'” Johnathon Banks, the head trainer, exclusively told Sky Sports.

“‘No more boxing. Go get him! He’s still hurt. You’ve got to finish him!’

“I believe he agreed but he didn’t see what I saw. He saw someone still able to let their hands go.”

Joshua had scored the fight’s first knock-down in the fifth round but Klitschko recovered quickly. In the sixth Klitschko landed a thunderbolt of a right hand which sent Joshua to the canvas for the first time in his career. When Joshua rose, he was shaky and saved by the bell.

Vitali, also in his brother’s corner, had since admitted: “When Wladimir almost knocked Joshua out, I gave him the wrong advice. I was positive that Joshua, with his huge muscle mass, would not be able to last [the distance].

“I advised Wladimir not to rush anything. I had hoped that after the seventh, the eighth round… Joshua would really slow down. Now I think that maybe it was a mistake, maybe it was necessary to finish him off sooner.”

But doubts abound as to the altruism of Vitali’s claim.

“Wladimir and Vitali speak in their native language so I didn’t pick that up,” cut-man Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran told Sky Sports.

“I wish we could rewind and do that again.”

But Banks, the American head trainer, said: “I understood Vitali say that in Russian. I jumped up! The security guards told me to sit down but I was shouting: ‘Finish him, finish him!’

“I knew Vitali’s voice would reign supreme over mine. I tried my best to override.”

Sure enough, Klitschko didn’t pull the trigger. Joshua bravely recovered and pulled off a spectacular comeback stoppage in the 11th round.

And Banks isn’t about to lay the blame on Vitali.

“You’ve got to understand that to Vitali, it wasn’t a mistake. His job is to protect his little brother. His emotion clouded the business.

“A lot of fathers who are trainers for their sons either stop the fight too early or too late.

“Someone unrelated? My job is also to protect but the emotion is different.”

Wladimir Klitschko, once the world heavyweight champion for nearly a decade, retired after his stunning efforts at Wembley helped to catapult Joshua onto a higher level.

Banks recalled: “If I were in Joe Frazier’s corner for the Thrilla in Manila would I be upset that we lost? Or enthused to be a part of such a historic event?

“I loved how Wladimir fought. He performed better in that fight than most people thought he had in his entire career.

“A lot of questions from his reign on top were only answered in that fight. He answered questions from critics dating back to 2004.

“Like The Gladiator move – you win the crowd, you win your freedom. Wladimir’s lock and key was that he never went through [difficulty]. If you knocked him down, it was over – that was his chain.

“But he answered that question and gained his freedom.

“We lost the fight but, I believe, we won the war.”