Joshua defends snub
Anthony Joshua has denied snubbing New Zealand and Samoan media ahead of is world heavyweight unification fight with Kiwi Joseph Parker.
Labelled ‘‘disrespectful’’ by team Parker for not giving the travelling journalists his time at a media session at his Sheffield training camp last week, Joshua went out of his way to explain himself at the main pre-fight press conference in London yesterday.
‘‘I don’t want to lose, it’s little things,’’ he said of his preparations.
‘‘People thought I walked out on the New Zealand press, but that wasn’t the case.
‘‘It was because I was there from
10.30 in the morning until 5pm, and I had to be back in the gym for
6.30pm to train, and I hadn’t eaten. ‘‘It wouldn’t have mattered if it was African press, the Chinese press, Russian or the New Zealand press, I told my team ‘can I make a move now because I have to be back in an hour-and-a-half? Do they mind waiting?’’’
Joshua said he was prepared to talk to Kiwi and Samoan media after his training session but they didn’t want to wait around any longer.
Joshua was accommodating at the London press conference, stepping off the main stage to spend about three hours mixing with various forms of media from all sorts of countries as about 150 media attended a huge afternoon at the event hosted by broadcaster Sky TV on the outskirts of the capital.