21st August - A disgraceful embarrassment

That really is the only way to describe the hugely distasteful behaviour of Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia last night. I’ve seen numerous media sources once again hopping on his dick today, hailing his outburst as a ‘human reaction’ from the ‘face of British boxing’. I’ve no doubt that’s a human reaction, but it is the reaction of an appalling human. To hog the limelight from the evening’s victor is bad enough (and what a superbly humble champion Usyk is, by the way), but to then throw his opponent’s belts out of the ring is the sort of behaviour that - if it were exhibited by Tyson Fury - would most likely land him with a lifetime ban from the sport.

It has been clear, for quite a long time now, that Joshua is far from the ‘modest’ champion that he - or more specifically Eddie Hearn, and his well oiled PR empire - have painted him out to be. The Watford bad-boy, who was infamously close to a life of jail-time and thuggery in his younger days, really allowed his inner dark side to rear a head which he’s been trying to suppress for so long, in an attempt to bolster his public fandom, and earnings. But the arrogance which threatened to seep out in a cringe-worthy post-fight interview against Joseph Parker in March 2018, was once again so present during his bout with Kubrat Pulev in Winter 2020, and AJ completed the trilogy with his lewd showing in Jeddah. 

From squaring up to fans after the fight, to stealing the mic from his opponent and disrespectfully labelling him as “not as strong as me” in the ring during a time when both men were supposed to be embracing one another with post-scrap respect high on their agenda, AJ has now left his career in tatters, relegating himself down to the ‘B-List’ of top tier boxing, where he’ll take his place alongside the likes of Dereck Chisora, and the ghost of his New York nightmare, Andy Ruiz. This emergence of Joshua’s true self is not just a victory for boxing. It is a victory for the authenticity of the sport. What will now happen to the army of chavs who noisily support him in pubs, or pop their best blazer on to snort lines of coke all night at Wembley and capture the ring-walk on their Instagram story? Now AJ is no longer ‘cool’, who will they cling onto? The same man they so resoundingly mocked in 2017 at the peak of ‘Joshua fever’? Whilst true boxing fans remained patient and waited for the return of the true King, the Love Island/Ocean Beach/Boohoo crew were busy scoffing at the 30 stone giant suffering a bout of drug addiction and suicidal thoughts. 5 years on, and the cream has finally risen to the top, leaving the posing poster-boy of all those Calvin Klein sponsorship deals with nowhere to turn. The career of AJ is dead…

... Long live Tyson Fury, true (Gypsy) King of the heavyweight division.