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IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua revealed that he spoke to Wladimir Klitschko a few weeks ago, in order to obtain some information about once-beaten Kubrat Pulev.
That sole defeat, was back in 2014, when Pulev was stopped by then unified champion Klitschko.
Joshua, who stopped Klitschko back in 2017, will make a mandatory defense against Pulev on Saturday night at the SSE Arena in Wembley.
A few months following that defeat, Klitschko bypassed a contracted rematch and decided to retire from the sport.
In the last few years, the two Olympic gold medal winners have become good friends.
When Joshua needs advice on a matter, he doesn’t hesitate to contact Klitschko.
“We spoke about the Pulev fight. This was like four weeks ago. And I’m probably going to catch up with him again now that you’ve just mentioned it. He has his views,” Joshua said to Sky Sports.
However, Joshua fully realizes that their respective fights were completely different.
“But every fighter… so Pulev vs Klitschko is different to the Pulev vs Joshua. Pulev vs Klitschko was different to Klitschko vs Joshua. They’re completely different fights. So even though Klitschko has been in with both of us, the fights were so different,” Joshua said.
“So even though Klitschko is going to give me advice on how to deal with Pulev, I have to take it with a pinch of salt. Because the Pulev I am going to be fighting is completely different from the Pulev that Klitschko was fighting.”
The contest will be the first for Joshua since regaining his world titles back in December of 2019, when he traveled to Saudi Arabia to win a twelve round unanimous decision over Andy Ruiz. The victory avenged a TKO defeat at the hands of Ruiz, which took place six months earlier in New York City.