It is no longer news that Nigerian-British boxer, Anthony Joshua, has retained his International Boxing Federation world heavyweight title and won the vacant World Boxing Association and International Boxing Organisation belts by defeating Russia’s Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday in a pulsating, tospy-turvy fight in front of the biggest boxing audience in the United Kingdom for almost 80 years.
Joshua, 27, had had to get off the canvas to beat Klitschko after being knocked down in the sixth round by the 41-year-old former champion. For a long troubling spell afterwards, he had looked on the brink of imminent defeat as he wobbled and clung on without counter-punching.
But he withstood all Klitschko’s attempts to finish the fight off and rallied late to knock the challenger to the floor twice in the 11th round, the first teed up by a savage uppercut and the second with a venomous left hook.
Klitschko, who held at least one version of the title for 15 years from 2000, took mandatory eight counts both times but was then backed into a corner and forced the referee to step in to protect him because he was unable to defend himself.
Klitschko had also been felled in the fifth, but Joshua also came desperately close to defeat after suffering the first knockdown of his 19-fight professional career one round later.
Perhaps suffering momentary over-confidence, he was felled by a huge right hander in a bruising seesaw encounter that had both fighters scenting victory.
Eventually it was Joshua, 14 years the 41-year-old Ukrainian’s junior, who showed the heart and stamina to claim an epic contest in one of the greatest performances by a British fighter and one raucously celebrated by around 90,000 fans.
Right before last Saturday’s epic fight, Joshua was presented with a bespoke Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic, a £150,000 (N61m) car that would naturally command respect anytime it’s on the road.
Jaguar Land Rover had presented the IBF heavyweight title holder with the one-of-a-kind high performance vehicle courtesy of the company’s Special Vehicle Operations sector.
About Joshua’s Range Rover SVAutobiography
Joshua’s bespoke car includes a number of special features just for the boxer, including door handles with unique boxing glove pattern surrounds, name-inscribed tread plates, a chrome B-pillar badge with his signature, and a custom equipment storage unit for all his gear.
Land Rover even gave the vehicle a one-off exterior colour, specially named World Champion Graphite.
The car also features diamond-quilted leather interior with Joshua’s signature embossed in the headrest and aluminium letter box finishers on door cards engraved with his signature.
Understandably, the British fighter was over the moon with his new set of wheels.
“The Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic is the pinnacle of luxury and performance and it has been a pleasure to partner with the SVO team to create a version unique to my tastes,” he said.
“I had a fantastic experience in specifying this Range Rover, and the level of design detail in the finished vehicle is stunning, from the boxing glove emblems in the door handles to the custom storage unit for my training equipment.”
Finished in Coventry, England, the boxer’s Range Rover is the first in the world to feature the new SVO Design Pack, which provides a broad scope for customers to personalise their vehicle and includes a number of distinct exterior changes, including unique front and rear bumpers, new side vents, side sills and a bespoke grille.
Jaguar Land Rover SVO Head of Special Projects, David Fairbairn, said the vehicle was definitive of what the fighter represents.
“The performance and features of the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic espouse the attributes of an elite athlete like Anthony Joshua: distinctive style, powerful at heart and a jaw-dropping combination of performance and capability,” he said.
