LONDON: Heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko meet on Saturday in a bout which pits the young and seemingly invincible champion against the ageing and deposed former title-holder.

The Briton’s International Boxing Federation (IBF) title and the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) belt will be disputed in the most significant heavyweight fight ever to be held in Britain, which will reportedly earn the pair upwards of 10 million ($13 million) each.

Joshua, 27, has shown no signs of strain in dealing with the scale of Saturday’s bout.

A crowd of over 90,000 — Britain’s largest attendance for a boxing event since 1939 — is expected at London’s Wembley Stadium, with millions more watching on television in over 140 countries.

“It’s a military mindset,” said Joshua, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist. “I’m a fighter. I’m not caught up with the entertainment.” Joshua does not even see this as being the most important fight he will ever have.

“I don’t think so, because it won’t be the end of my career,” he explained. “When he [Klitschko] gets beat that could be the end of him, that’s why it could be defining for him.”

Joshua believes he will be too young and sharp for his 41-year-old opponent, who has not boxed for 17 months.

Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) is fighting to show he is not finished after turning professional in 1996 following his Olympic gold medal success earlier that year when Joshua was aged seven.

The Ukrainian was last seen in a ring when outboxed in a defeat by Joshua’s compatriot Tyson Fury, which ended his reign as champion of nine-and-a-half years, in November 2015.

Klitschko, who saw Fury twice pull out of a re-match, is banking on his greater experience being a decisive factor.

“Experience is something that you cannot buy in a shop, you gain it over the years,” Klitschko said.

“In the fight, people could be in great preparation and great spirit and I’ve seen that they crumble like a cookie right before the first bell,” added Klitschko, bidding to become a three-time world heavyweight champion like his older brother Vitali, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017