"He's already a big star but this projects him into a completely different stratosphere. It makes Anthony Joshua, if he wins this fight, one of the biggest stars in British sport, not just British boxing." 

That's the view of The Telegraph's boxing correspondent Gareth A Davies ahead of the heavyweight bout at Wembley between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko.

Speaking to Off The Ball ahead of the Saturday night fight that could prove era defining in the heavyweight ranks, Davies predicted how the pattern of the bout will play out.

"Klitschko knows what he is going to be dealing with with Anthony Joshua. A big powerful man who's going to step in and throw one-twos linearly and try and trap him on the ropes and release combinations," he said.

"Klitschko will try and establish his jab early and then he's going to try and tie Joshua up into the middle rounds and try and take it away from him. They might exchange now and again but he's going to try and nullify the big man's work if you like and that's what makes it fascinating.

"Has the old man got the legs in him at 41? I don't think he has. Is the ego and the obsession that he talks about really vanity because he wants redemption from a terrible night's work against Tyson Fury 18 months ago when he couldn't let his hands go. There are so many imponderables.

"Does Anthony Joshua have the experience to be able to change the pattern of a fight if Klitschko does tie him up?" 

Stylistically, Davies described Joshua in these terms: "He's a cross between the attitude of Mike Tyson and the thundering punches of a George Foreman. He's more like a George Foreman than he is a Tyson Fury."

Andy Lee's first hand insight on Klitschko's biggest weaknesses

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