Anthony Joshua placed a bid of £5,000 for Wladimir Klitschko's USB stick containing his rival's pre-fight prediction which later sold at auction for £160,000.
The British star fought the Ukrainian in one of the biggest fights of his career at Wembley Stadium in 2017, where he produced an epic comeback to score an 11th-round stoppage victory. Prior to the fight, Klitschko confirmed he would be selling his fight robe with a USB stick sewn within it containing his pre-fight prediction.
The robe and USB stick later sold for £160,000 to a mystery buyer with the proceeds going to projects supported by the Klitschko Foundation. Joshua has now revealed he has never seen the footage filmed by his rival.
"He 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," Joshua said during a Q&A with Oxford Union. "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 lets call it £5,000'. That is a lot of money. But 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."
Klitschko had confirmed his stunt in the Sky Sports building during a busy press conference, with a buyer never publicly revealed. Joshua was knocked down at the midway point in the clash but produced a sensational late display to call a halt to his rival's top-level career.
What do you think Wladimir Klitschko predicted on the USB stick before his fight with Anthony Joshua? Let us know in the comments section below
At the time of the event Joshua was left unimpressed by his rival's stunt and viewed it as mind games ahead of their big unified title clash. “It's strategy, isn't it? I'm just focusing on the fight, I'm not downloading no USB and bringing that to press conferences," Joshua said at the press conference prior to the fight.
"I didn't take it the way he wanted to express it. In this sport you can't say something and get away with it, so it has to exist. "I don't think he'll reveal who bid for it if he does give it away. It was an attempt (at a mind game). He's trying to make me angry, because when I'm angry I don't fight well. But he's different at it. I don't dislike him, I just want to beat him, and there's a big difference."
