Anthony Joshua bid £5,000 for Wladimir Klitschko USB which sold for £160,000
Anthony Joshua beat Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko in a colossal heavyweight clash in 2017, but then failed in his bid to purchase a prized possession from his rival
Anthony Joshua once put in a cheeky bid for the notorious memory stick that Wladimir Klitschko claimed would help him beat the British heavyweight in 2017.
The two put on a fight for the ages in front of a sold-out Wembley stadium, with the then undefeated Joshua putting his IBF titles on the line. The vacant WBA and IBO belts were also up for the grabs due to Tyson Fury’s exile from the ring.
In a dramatic clash where both fighters hit the deck, it was ‘AJ’ who eventually prevailed when he floored the Ukrainian again in the 11th round. Prior to that though, the build-up had been an intriguing one with Klitschko, 46, holding up a USB stick in one of his pre-fight press conferences.
he man dubbed ‘Dr Steelhammer’ had claimed the stick contained information that would be key to him beating the champion. As it turned out, thorough research alone wasn’t enough in what proved his final career fight.
He did go on to sell the memory stick for £160,000 though, donating the proceeds to charity. But only after an obviously interested Joshua came up short with a bid of his own.
According to givemesport, Joshua, 32, revealed: “[Klitschko] said ‘I have a memory stick sewn into my gown which is going to break down how I will defeat Anthony Joshua’, along with his prediction.
“In 2014 I went to help him prepare for a fight and they record the training sessions. In 2017 I fought Wladimir Klitschko. After the fight I sent the invoice and it cleared. So I rang my guys and was like ‘Yeah I want to put a bid in for this stick, I am ready, let’s call it £5,000’. That is a lot of money.”
Given the amount the former Olympic gold medalist made from the fight, he could probably have pledged a little more, especially given his attempt got nowhere near: “I think it sold for like £200,000 and I was a long way off the mark that it needed to take to win the auction.”
Joshua has since twice lost the belts, and is currently preparing for his rematch with another Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk. Klitschko, meanwhile, has taken arms as his native country battles against the Russian invasion, an ordeal he admits has scuppered his plans to come out of retirement and challenge Tyson Fury.
