Joshua knocked Pulev down twice in the third round and two more times in the ninth before the fight was ended. Joshua showed more aggression and looked more like the confident bomber as he was before the two fights with Andy Ruiz in 2019 and less like the cautious and tentative boxer that he showed in winning the Ruiz rematch.
An argument could have been made that the fight could have been stopped in the third round as twice Pulev turned his back to avoid Joshua's punches and that could have been judged to have been a sign of surrender.
The fight continued with Pulev occasionally rocked by right hands and right uppercuts throughout until the ninth round when Pulev was finished off for the evening.
I had Joshua leading 79-71 at the end of eight rounds and was on his to an easy win before concluding the fight.
It was the performance that Joshua needed to push the memories of his loss and dull win over Andy Ruiz to the background and get fans excited about unification with WBC champion Tyson Fury.
Both fighters and their promoters want that fight to happen next and it could- But it's all up to an arbitrator to decide whether Deontay Wilde breached his contract for a third fight with Fury.
Should Fury win the case, he's open for a fight with Joshua, but it may better if he is forced to fight Wilder as Joshua could face WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk at the same time and keep all four titles for the unification fight.
If Joshua fights Fury instead of Usyk, he could be stripped of the WBO title, and then all four championships would not be unified by a Joshua-Fury fight.
In undercard action, cruiserweight Lawrence Okolie stayed busy while he waited for Krzysztof Glowacki to return from and fight for the vacant WBO championship with a second-round knockout of late substitute Nikodem Jezewski.
Okolie knocked down Jezewski twice in the first round and once in the second before the mismatch was ended.
Hughie Fury won a clear, but unspectacular unanimous decision over Mariusz Wach in a fight that was a minor IBF eliminator.
The most exciting part in Fury's win was an unintentional headbutt over his left eye that threatened to stop the fight in the fourth round, but Fury was able to battle through and finish with help from his cutman.
I scored Fury a 99-91 winner giving only the fifth round to Wach.
The winner is scheduled to face Martin Bakole, who won a unanimous decision over Sergey Kuzmin on the undercard in another eliminator.
The Las Vegas bubble hosted its final card of the year for Top Rank and ESPN and while the main event was the expected showcase match, the co-feature (thus far) was the fight of the day.
Shakur Stevenson continued to bide his time before a junior lightweight title attempt with a unanimous decision over Toka Kahn-Clary.
Stevenson won every round and was rarely hit doing so against the soft-fisted Kahn-Clary, who is a cut or two below world-class caliber.
I scored Stevenson a 100-90 winner in a fight that proved little other than Kahn-Clary could make Stevenson go ten rounds.
Stevenson is the number one contender in the WBO rankings and the number two in the WBC and with both of those champions and their next challengers controlled by Top Rank (WBO Jamel Herring vs Carl Frampton and WBC Miguel Berchelt vs Oscar Valdez), Stevenson could have the opportunity to win both of those championships in 2021.
The co-feature also was held in the junior lightweight division and the winner was going to move up into the lower part of some rankings as one-time sensation Felix Verdejo battled Masayoshi Nakatani in a ten-round fight.
Verdejo started fast and looked he was on his way to a career-changing victory over Nakatani, who was returning after his only career loss in which he surprised almost everyone in lasting the distance and giving a solid test to Teofimo Lopez.
Verdejo knocked Nakatani down in the first with Nakatani surviving only because the knockdown occurred late in the round and sent him to a knee in the fourth round, although he didn't seem nearly as stung by that one.
I had Verdejo well ahead after six rounds (60-52) and it seemed like Nakatani would need a knockout to win unless he scored a knockdown in each remaining round.
Nakatani began to turn the fight around in the seventh when he landed a right that badly hurt Verdejo. Verdejo managed to stay upright, but you had the feeling that the race had begun- if Verdejo lasts through the final three rounds, he wins on the scorecards with ease, but would his legs give out on him first?
The eighth saw Nakatani continue to back Verdejo up and sting him, but Verdejo fired back gamely and even stunned Nakatani a bit in an action-filled exchange.
Midway through the ninth, Nakatani landed another right that sent Verdejo flying backward into the ropes and to the floor, and honestly, I wouldn't have complained if the fight was stopped after Verdejo rose in a daze.
Still, I don't have a problem in giving the fighter up on the scorecards every chance to hold on, but in seconds another Nakatani right dropped Verdejo facedown on the floor to end the fight.
For Nakatani, he places himself in the mix at 130 pounds and considering his effort against the naturally larger Lopez, is going to have plenty of fights to be made involving him.
For Verdejo, I wouldn't be against considering retirement, even at 27.
Verdejo's offensive skills are still among the best in the division, but he seems to hit a wall after six rounds ( Verdejo's other knockout loss was in the tenth round of a fight that he was winning against Antonio Lozada) and when he runs out of gas, his punch resistance completely goes away.
Verdejo didn't dog it in defeat, but I'd be concerned with him facing a big puncher.
I have not watched the three Showtime fights and I'll either write it up when I watch them or add them with an edit here.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me nine to seven due to the Nakatani win and a bonus point for calling the round in Anthony Joshua's win.
My lead was cut to 174-163 in the overall standings.
Showtime Edit:
Ronald Ellis lost the first four rounds to Matt Korobov, but Korobov injured his ankle and was unable to continue, giving Ellis the TKO victory.
It may be time for the aging and breaking down Korobov to consider retirement.
Korobov fights well, but his body doesn't seem to handle the stress, and injuries seem to follow him around.
Richardson Hitchens won a split decision over Argenis Mendez that should have been unanimous.
I scored Hitchens a 97-93 winner and that may have been generous to Mendez.
In the main event, Chris Colbert broke open a fairly close fight with a knockdown in the ninth round and scored three more to end the evening in the eleventh round with a victory over Jaime Arboleda.
I had Colbert ahead 96-93 entering the eleventh.
Ramon Malpica outscored me four to three in the Showtime fights to cut into my lead either further in the boxing challenge at 177-167
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