AJ WAS AT MY GYM DOING A KEEP-FIT CLASS... WOW, HE WAS BLOWING!
Sean Murphy was the man who first coached Anthony Joshua when he walked into Finchley ABC aged 18.
I SAW Josh the day before his first fight with Andy Ruiz and he didn’t seem himself. His performance was very poor. After that I didn’t see him until he came back to Finchley. I had a couple of sessions on the pads with him and he was very positive. AJ is never happy with his performance but he was saying: ‘Don’t worry, I’m bringing the title back.’ This is his home and he was coming in about four times a week. Before he went into camp for the rematch he trained with my keep-fit class. It’s just everyday men and women. We do an hour and 15 minutes and he said: ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realise how hard this is!’ We have a 10-minute warm-up — touching the floor, up and down, jumping — and If we’ve got 20 people, I might say get into groups of three and whoever isn’t in a group we’re punishing them. He was hustling, saying, ‘Come with me!’ He thought it would be a doddle but he was blowing out of his a***! He did about three keepfit sessions but after the first one, he said: ‘I’m coming tomorrow.’ It was actually the day after and when he came back he said: ‘I was ruined! I couldn’t move the next day.’ A lot of people get a bit star-struck because he’s famous but he’s just one of the boxers. I think that’s why he enjoys coming here as no one sucks up to him. He’s no different to when he first walked through the door — he’s made a bit of dough but he still gives people his time. And I still make him pick up his s***. I’ll say: ‘Put it in the bin, you’re no different!’ We keep him grounded. I 100 per cent think he’ll bring the title back. If Ruiz thinks that was the best AJ he could deal with in New York then he’s in for a shock.