Anthony Joshua can show his smarts in game of ‘violent chess’ with Alexander Povetkin

Interviewed by Tony Bellew for Sky Sports recently, Anthony Joshua agreed enthusiastically with the Liverpudlian’s view that boxing is like ‘violent chess’.

It is a game of deep strategy, which tests the ability to respond, adjust, read your opponent’s intentions and counter in such a way that attack and defence happen simultaneously.

This is a familiar analogy but, like most old saws, its popularity stems from its accuracy. There’s a huge difference between a dangerous fighter and a great boxer — and in a contest between one of each, the boxer should always win.

One of the most impressive things about Joshua in his extraordinary career to date has been his desire to improve as a boxer. That he is a phenomenal straight-line puncher has never been in doubt; his athleticism and physicality mean he has always been blessed with juddering, damaging fist velocity.

That’s one reason why his 21-bout professional record has only involved 77 rounds — an average of 3.67 rounds per fight having been raised significantly by his last outing, against Joseph Parker this March, which went the full dozen.

Joshua says this was — all due respect to Parker — his choice. He wanted to prove he could outbox a man and not just spark him. If so, it was a smart move.

Joshua has packed a huge amount of professional boxing into an incredibly short space of time, virtually without an apprenticeship before the big time. And, as we may see this weekend when he fights the ageing but dangerous Alexander Povetkin at Wembley, outthinking and outlasting is going to become a more important part of his toolkit than simple in-your-face destruction.

Povetkin is only the third or fourth opponent I fancy most of the British sporting public would like Joshua to be fighting this week (Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Dillian Whyte would all be easier to sell to the casual fan in the pub). But that does not mean the 39-year old is another Charles Martin or Dominic Breazeale: a patsy turning up to cash in for landing on his backside.

Povetkin is bullheaded, canny and awkward. Yes, he’s getting on, but he has hundreds of rounds under his belt and held the WBA title earlier in the decade. His round-shouldered, slightly turtled stance means he makes himself shorter than his 6ft 2ins in the ring, rendering him difficult to hit for giants like Joshua, who sacrifice power as they punch downwards, and can be goaded into dropping their hands when the Russian attacks his natural target: the midriff.

David Price was undone this way when Povetkin knocked him out on the undercard of the Joshua-Parker card. The most telling moment in that fight was when Price was knocked down for the first time and the Liverpudlian sat beating the canvas with his fists in frustration.

Price knew exactly how he’d been set up, but had still allowed it to happen. As they say in chess: fool’s mate.

Of course, Price is a more limited boxer than Joshua, with an unfortunate history of being zonked that now extends to five KO or TKO defeats. Whether it is kind or sensible to have Price on Joshua’s undercard again this weekend is a debate worth having elsewhere.

Yet, Price did Povetkin some damage of his own in that battle, catching him hard as he charged in with his head down and sending him staggering back almost the length of the ring to be saved from a knockdown by the corner post.

Joshua must have noted all of this. Povetkin can be hit and hurt. It could be a quick fight. But it may be that Povetkin is best overcome in the manner that Wladimir Klitschko deployed when inflicting his only defeat, a 119-104 points defeat in 2013. Go the distance, earn the decision. Box. Play chess.

Whether violent chess is what will pack 90,000 into Wembley every time Joshua fights is for Eddie Hearn to worry about. There are plenty of floating fans who just want violent violence.

But long careers are about smarts and not just hurts. Joshua will want to prove once more against Povetkin that he has both.