Anthony Joshua said some words to his boxing promoter when he learned of the opponent change ahead of this weekend’s fight.

Carlos Takam might not be known to the wider sporting public outside of boxing fans, but those that do know of him – know that he can fight.

He’s also been in training the past couple of months as well on standby for this opportunity in case of injury to previous opponent Pulev.

So he will be prepared this weekend. No doubt about it.

It was thought that Joshua was not happy with his promoter when initially learning of the news but as promoter Eddie Hearn himself confirmed in his column for the Daily Mail, he soon had a change of heart and had the following to say about his opponent this weekend:

“No problem – that’s a fun fight. He’s just a calm guy. Amazing really.”

Takam’s temperament has been impressive in the past for sure.

Upon looking at his past fights and opponents he has more than mixed in decent class, so I don’t think the size of the occasion or atmosphere will get to him this weekend.

Nor will it will Joshua at this stage.

The result could be some heavy bombs exchanged early on but it’s hard to see these exchanges not going in favour of the bigger, faster, longer and hard punching champion.

Although Takam lost in the following fight to Russian Alexander Povetkin, it offers more than a good insight into his ability to tough it out and go to war in the trenches when called upon: