Wladimir Klitschko explains why he did not look to finish the fight after knocking Anthony Joshua down in round 6 of their fight.

Following on from the Joshua vs Klitschko fight, one point I thought that was mentioned that carried some merit was pertaining to how Klitschko might be kicking himself a bit today for not finishing the fight when he had Joshua in trouble in round 6.

Joshua looked out on his feet and you could hear it in the commentators’ voices even, who included Carl Froch – a boxing warrior who knows more than most what it’s like to be badly hurt in a top level world title fight, that the bout was just moments away from being stopped.

Froch was quoted as saying in commentary that the fight could be over at anytime at the time. Joshua wasn’t doing a lot of holding to hang on, but somehow managed to survive the end of the round nonetheless.

Speaking in the post-fight press conference – Klitschko explains why he didn’t go for it more:

“I could have done more to finish him off after he went down, but I was pretty sure this was going to be my night so I took my time.”

Taking his time and perhaps being a little over patient ultimately cost him but that’s not taking anything away from Klitschko.

The performance he chalked in for a 41 year old boxer was outstanding.

Essentially he turned the clock back and the condition he came into the fight alone showed how ferociously he had trained for it.

I personally don’t buy the whole ‘Klitschko was shot as a fighter’ notion that seems to be flying around in some quarters online following the fight.

Sure, was it Klitschko at is very best? Probably not, but maybe not a whole lot off of it. It was a very, very good Klitschko. But was it him at his worst? No way.

He came back from a knockdown initially himself in the fight too remember. He showed remarkable heart and perhaps more entertainment than any other fight in his career.

The Klitschko stock went up last night.