Joshua hits back at taunts
An angry Anthony Joshua says Joseph Parker lacks respect and he won’t shake his hand after he ‘‘whoops’’ the Kiwi in their world heavyweight unification fight.
The massive fight has been confirmed for March 31 in Cardiff, with 78,000 likely to attend a bout where Parker puts up his WBO belt and Joshua his WBA and IBF titles.
The aggressive approach by Parker to flush out Joshua for this lucrative fight has clearly hit a nerve with the big Brit.
Parker has continued to question Joshua’s ‘‘glass jaw’’ and ‘‘robotic’’ fighting style and Parker’s boss David Higgins has fuelled the flames by suggesting Joshua could be the next British sporting ‘‘choker’’.
Now the fight contract has been signed, Joshua voiced his anger to host broadcaster Sky Sports UK.
‘‘I haven’t seen them all, but I’ve heard some of them,’’ Joshua said when asked about the provocative comments coming from Parker which continued in mainstream British media over the weekend.
‘‘In sports you’ve got the likes of Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton, Cristiano Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi, LeBron James, and then you’ve got people like Joseph Parker, so he’s not a respectable type of person, he can’t control himself.
‘‘But that’s just how it is. You’ve got to accept people for who they are. If that’s how he wants to plan his shot, we let him crack on.’’
Joshua said the best way to earn Parker’s respect would be to beat him at the Principality Stadium.
‘‘He’ll be respectful after I whoop him. He might try to shake my hand. I won’t shake his hand though,’’ Joshua vowed.
There’s more than a touch of hypocrisy in Joshua’s comments after he joined talkshow host Graham Norton to belittle Parker late last week on a popular British TV programme.
When Norton questioned Parker’s body shape and labelled him ‘‘the king of pies’’, Joshua laughed and suggested ‘‘Pie Man’’ might be a good nickname for the Kiwi.
The two will face each other in a London press conference tonight (NZT) that has the potential to be a fiery affair.
Joshua’s boss Eddie Hearn has warned about the dangers of the Team Parker campaign, admitting they had riled his fighter for the first time in his career and that could backfire in the ring.