Let the hype train roll on.
It was the sternest test of his young career but a valiant Dillan Whyte was probably the best thing that could have possibly happened to Anthony Joshua.
Joshua looked comfortable early on and even found the time to taunt his opponent before the first round ended with the bad blood, that had brewed for weeks in the build-up, boiling over at the end as Whyte wanted to continue swinging with the referee struggling to keep control.
After a warning from referee Howard Foster, Whyte came out firing in the second round and rocked AJ but the heavy favourite managed to regain his composure, something that he never had the need to do before.
The third round came and went and there was still no sign of the usual Joshua finish on the horizon.
But, eventually, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist extended his perfect pro record to 15, all by knockout, but there was no plain sailing as he was dragged past the third round for the first time.
The zero in the loss column of both fighters was on the line and it was Whyte who succumbed to the first defeat of his professional career as a right hand to his temple, followed by a vicious uppercut, finished the fight in the seventh.
