Anthony Joshua overcame Robert Helenius thanks to a humungous seventh round knockout at London's O2 Arena last night. The original fight card had AJ sharing the ring once again with Dillian Whyte, but after the latter failed a drug test, The Nordic Nightmare stepped up as a replacement just seven days ago. This was despite the fact he fought last weekend as well!

The heavyweight bout was Joshua’s second time fighting since his damaging loss against Oleksandr Usyk last year after winning fairly unconvincingly against Jermaine Franklin in April, and it was actually his first stoppage since he knocked out Kubrat Pulev way back in 2020.

Anthony Joshua vs Robert Helenius

The former heavyweight champion got off to a slow start and was somewhat unconvincing in the opening few rounds. In the first six rounds, Joshua had landed some good shots but had not fully committed to putting all his power into it and so the first couple of rounds mostly consisted of jabs with AJ landing a couple of right hands.

Helenius made a few punches, enough to warrant a slight level of concern for Joshua’s team, who have been open about the desire to participate in a box office fight against Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia. This fight was going to have to prove that Joshua was worth it.

But the first rounds were not overly convincing, and at times the crowd expressed their dissatisfaction with the level of entertainment in the third round, starting to boo what they were watching, as Joshua landed some decent single shots but struggled to complete enough combinations to make an impact on the fight.

However, after six rounds of cautious boxing, Joshua committed to a right hand shot that Helenius could not recover from. The Finnish heavyweight's back was against the ropes, Joshua threw a low body shot and quickly followed with the powerful right hand over the top that audiences had become so used to seeing in previous fights. Helenius immediately fell to the canvas and the fight was over.

In the aftermath of the fight, slow motion footage of the knockout has since emerged on social media, and it makes the humungous knockout look 10x more brutal. Take a look below for yourself!

Video: Anthony Joshua's huge KO of Helenius in slow-mo

Once Joshua had completed his victory lap around the ring, the British boxer was immediately asked about whether he had felt pressure going into the fight.

What next for Anthony Joshua?

“Man, people need to leave me alone,” he said. “I do what I want, this is my time in the ring.”

But Joshua couldn’t dodge questions about the future and the possibility of a fight against Deontay Wilder. He responded to the questions with a joke about carrying the heavyweight division on his back, but Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn was quick to interject, reassuring audiences that there was a “three fight-plan,” with Wilder and Tyson Fury the goals for Joshua’s next opponents.

Saudi Arabian representatives were said to be in London to discuss the potential of a fight between Joshua and Wilder, a fight that Joshua said would be a “win” for boxing.

Eddie Hearn was adamant that Joshua was ready for this next step, saying: “Things have changed. He’s now a mature heavyweight. We believe he can go on and beat Deontay Wilder.”