Wladimir Klitschko has retired from boxing, ending Anthony Joshua’s hopes of a Las Vegas rematch. The Ukrainian lost to Joshua at Wembley in April after the Brit climbed off the canvas to knock out the ring legend in the penultimate round.
The rematch had been penciled in for November 11 in Sin City but Joshua will now have to look elsewhere.
Klitschko, 41, confirmed the news with a statement on his website today which initially crashed due to the huge volume of traffic.
Joshua declared on Wednesday that he wanted Klitschko to agree to a rematch by the end of the month in order for a November bout to take place in Las Vegas, with promoter Eddie Hearn already starting talks over a second fight in the space of the year between the two giants.
It read:
“I deliberately took a few weeks to make my decision, to make sure I had enough distance from the fight at Wembley Stadium.
“As an amateur and a professional boxer, I have achieved everything I dreamed of, and now I want to start my second career after sports.I would have never imagined that I would have such a long and incredibly successful boxing career. I’m very thankful for this.”Thanks to everyone who has always supported me. Especially my family, my team and my many fans.”
