WAR OF WORDS
Anthony Joshua responds to Jarrell Miller’s drug accusations
BIG, bullish and brazen, Jarrell Miller ventured from Brooklyn to London this week and was quick to embrace both Britishness and his role as the pain in the backside Anthony Joshua, his next opponent, could probably do without.
During Monday’s press conference in west London, he mentioned drinking tea on numerous occasions, said he was being supported by plenty of Joshua’s countrymen, and displayed enough charisma and charm to endear himself to everyone other than the heavyweight champion out to snap his unbeaten record in New York on June 1.
Best of all, though, “Big Baby” Miller appears equipped to add some seasoning and flavour to a tried and tested dish and – to use a British idiom I’m sure Miller would appreciate – set the cat among the pigeons.
“It’s clear as day [ Joshua’s use of performanceenhancing drugs],” Miller, 23-0-1 [20], said, having scattered pigeons last week in New York when first shoving Joshua and then accusing him of benefitting from TUE [Therapeutic Use Exemption] throughout a near-faultless five-and-ahalf-year professional career.
“You can do your own research and look at it. My dad was a bodybuilder and a lot of gyms I train at have bodybuilders in them. Of course we know about the whole steroids thing. We can see it.
“When somebody comes out of the amateurs at 220-something pounds and a year or two later they are 240-something, there’s something wrong with that picture. Even if they’re training every day there’s no way you are going to put on 20 pounds of muscle within a year without taking some kind of supplement. It’s impossible. I know bodybuilders who train all year round on stuff and don’t put on that kind of muscle.”
Given the fact many of Joshua’s previous challengers seemed happy just to be in his presence, it’s unusual to see someone like Miller stick his own sizeable neck out and outline his beliefs. It won’t necessarily win him the fight on June 1, granted, but it adds a new dynamic to a Joshua title defence and for that we should be grateful.
It puts Joshua in a new position, too. That Monday, for instance, the subject of performance-enhancing drugs lingered and barged its way to the front of a queue typically comprising questions pertaining to his training regime, his life reformation, his thoughts on Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, and the importance of working hard and staying humble.
“That’s a compliment,” said Joshua, “because, if I was [taking performanceenhancing drugs], I would not even be able to fit in this shirt.” There was a laugh before getting serious “What does it take to be a sportsman?” he continued. “It’s your DNA and it’s your environment. I based myself in the gym when I started training. If you dedicate yourself to anything – your work or your training – it gets better.
“I dedicate myself to training. I have applied myself properly and these are the results. I have been training since I was 18. That’s 11 years.
“He’s [Miller] looking at my change between 2012 and 2013, but why doesn’t he look at the 11 years? Around the [2012] Olympics, I was around 104kgs. Then, when I turned pro, I was around 107kgs. That’s around half-a-stone.
“I am 115kgs, so that’s 11kgs in 11
‘SO MANY FIGHTERS WILL BE ACCUSED... I DO NOT SHOVE NEEDLES UP MY ARSE’
years. It averages out. Look on my social media. It’s my dedication. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone because it’s expensive, especially the food and drink and the lifestyle and training.”
Joshua, 22-0 [21], rightly pointed out that he’s not the first world heavyweight champion to be accused of cheating the system. He mentioned Wladimir Klitschko as an example of someone else whose achievements have been questioned from time to time.
“So many fighters will be accused,” he said, “but if, in the next 10 years, something was to come up then it would be a genuine mistake because I do not shove needles up my a**e.”
Klitschko, as it happens, was someone Miller also acknowledged.
“What did the Klitschkos have Phds in? Sports medicine,” the American opined. “They understand the body and medicine. They learnt about things that enhance the body. We all thought Wladimir Klitschko was on some stuff for a long time and Vitali got suspended for taking steroids [as an amateur boxer in 1996].”
Miller was at pains to stress he no longer cares whether Joshua is clean or dirty, confirmed they have agreed to 10or 12-week testing ahead of their June 1 fight, and put his own impressive weight gain down to heavy lifting – as well as eating porridge and drinking tea – for a number of years. Finally, when asked why Anthony Joshua, the current WBA, IBF and WBO champion, would risk his legacy by playing the PED game, Miller offered one name: Lance Armstrong.
“Some people look for the fast track,” the 30-year-old added. “He’s been on it for a while now and I’ve seen a change in his physique, his stamina and his power from his last few fights. I can see it.”
Joshua rallied back to say he is on ADAMS [Anti-doping Administration and Management System] and that performance-enhancing drug testers know of his whereabouts every hour of the day. He also revealed he has been on the programme since 2012 and pays £40,000 per fight for the privilege.
It’s worth noting, too, that during Miller’s kickboxing days, when competing for GLORY, he was suspended for nine months by the California State Athletic Commission for testing positive for methylhexaneamine [dimethylamylamine]. His views, therefore, will either be disregarded as the gossip of a bitter and envious one-time cheat or, conversely, the observations of a man well-versed in the subject who isn’t afraid to talk about it.
Joshua has his theory. “Miller has been banned for drugs so maybe that’s why he’s saying it,” he reasoned.
Essentially, though, if you look past the confusion and accusations, all we can glean from any of this is that boxing has a serious PED problem, nobody truly knows what anyone else is getting up to behind closed doors and sending a cat among the pigeons might be fun for Miller at this stage but, in the end, not solve or prove a thing.