In front of nearly 80,000 in attendance, Joshua overcame a short struggle, eventually coming out with a victory in round 7 through TKO to retain his world titles. Using his movement and coming in and out, Povetkin had Joshua hurt early on with his big shots. In round 2, Joshua's nose began to bruise. From round 5, Povetkin began to tire. Joshua dropped Povetkin with a left hand to the head in round 7. Povetkin got back up but Joshua was straight back in with a flurry of hard shots, before the referee mercifully stopped the fight. At the time of stoppage, the three judges scorecards were 58–56, 58–56, and 59–55 in favour of Joshua.