I’m not afraid of any fighter
WBC title-holder Deontay Wilder was the name on everyone’s lips with barely even time to savour Joshua’s 21st win without loss.
That is the way it is for Joshua. The public now demands bigger and better from him all the time.
Great sportsmen have the quality to keep driving forward no matter how much they succeed. The likes of AP McCoy and Sir Alex Ferguson possess it and it seems they share it with the Watford-born fighter.
“Yeah, I’m certainly not elated because I don’t let the highs go to my head,” said Joshua. “If I was retiring on this high I’d be ‘yes, I’m the man’, but I’ve got to defend these belts again in a few months.
“We’re looking to the next one and it’s not time to sit back. I’ll enjoy it more when I’m done. I can’t rest on this s**t. It’s not time to sit back and be, like, I’m the man.
“Boxing, even sport these days, it doesn’t give athletes a chance to make a mistake and learn from it. It has to be perfection, it has to be a highlights reel, it has to look great.
“If it doesn’t it’s not good enough. So I don’t think we’ll see any more LeBron Jameses, any more Cristiano Ronaldos and it will be hard to find any more Mike Tysons.
“I will enjoy it all more when I’m done. Afterwards I will be able to look back and talk about it all.”
If Joshua can take a moment to look back on Saturday night, it was a performance he can be proud of.
There may not have been the drama of his win over Wladimir Klitschko 11 months ago which will have left the blood-thirsty among the 78,000 crowd in Cardiff disappointed.
But it was a display worthy of coach Rob McCracken labelling it a “nine out of 10” even if the scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 119-109 were a little generous.
Joshua was patient behind his jab while being more nimble on his feet than before, knowing that looking for big right hands could have exposed him to the Kiwi’s sharp counters.
He came in 12lb lighter than his last win over Carlos Takam and the benefits were obvious.
It was a showing that will silence those who felt the biggest name in the British fight game was just a heavypunching brute as Joshua landed 40 more shots despite throwing about 100 fewer than the previously unbeaten Parker. Not exactly Floyd could derail the talks but Joshua said: “Does he need me more than I need him? Yes. Without being big-headed, that’s 100 per cent.
“He needs British boxing. He’s bigger here than he is in the States because of us.
“You have to look at him and ask him does he really want it? I’ve got no issue fighting anyone. If you look through my record, there hasn’t been an issue with fighting anyone. There’s no fear – it has to happen soon.”
Wilder’s last win over Luis Ortiz caused a stir Stateside but previously the Alabama native had not got much attention even in his homeland, which means his earning power is far less than that of Joshua, who pocketed £18m for Saturday’s win over Parker. But Wilder caused controversy over the weekend with a vile remark about wanting “a body” on his record.
He tweeted straight after Joshua’s win to tell the fighter, whose family come from Nigeria, to remove his tattoo of Africa on his arm because he is “not a warrior”.
Joshua said: “After the fight he’ll shake my hand and respect me, so I don’t take the personal stuff to heart. I dread the day it [Wilder getting a body on his record] happens because sometimes what you say comes true.
“I hope it doesn’t happen because it’s not good for the sport. I’m trying to make the fight in a professional manner. I’m not talking about catching a body or killing someone or about the Africa map.
“That’s not negotiating, that’s just talking. I’m trying to make the fight happen.”
Eddie Hearn said Wilder’s team were “jokers”.