HEAVY-WAIT
AJ warns rivals he won’t slip up
ANTHONY JOSHUA reckons rivals Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder both want him to lose on Saturday – but will end up disappointed.
After only two comeback fights Fury is set to challenge Wilder for the American’s WBC world title in the United States on December 1, 8 or 15.
The Manchester boxer constantly taunts his British rival while Wilder blamed the WBA-IBF-WBO world champion for the breakdown in talks to make a title unification fight between them. Wilder and Fury insist their fight is bigger than AJ’s title defence against Russian Alexander Povetkin in front of an expected crowd of 80,000 at Wembley. But Joshua, 28, believes he is the division’s true No.1 – despite what others might say
He said: “Fury always does it, jumps on Twitter when I’m fighting, when there’s a lot of hype around my fights. ‘You’re a p **** ’, ‘you’re this’, it’s good publicity.
“If you look at the trend, always around when I’m fighting he will call me out or mention my name. “They have done well for themselves but I’m the name in the division. They are going to wait for my failure, that’s what they are waiting for.
“They will be waiting a long time, that is for sure.”
It would be a big shock if Joshua slipped up on Saturday but Povetkin (below) is in dangerous form after savagely knocking out David Price in March.
The Russian, 39, was floored four times in a points defeat to Wladimir Klitschko in a previous world title shot five years ago and failed two dope tests in 2016 – but his recent form is impressive.
Joshua was taken to points in his last fight against Joseph Parker, the first time that has happened in his 21 professional scraps, and insists he feels under no pressure to get back to knocking out his opponents.
He said: “Povetkin is patient. He doesn’t really throw that many punches. You know if I am fighting a tall geezer it is jab for jab. But with Povetkin he is waiting and then, suddenly, it’s boom.
“It will be a real breaking down job. I can’t give him any opportunities. I have to stand on his ground.
“I know I can’t stand off it because he will be waiting for me to come in and then he’ll hit me. I have to take him off his game, bully him a bit, and bam, hit him.
“And also use a tight guard so you are not giving anything away, because when you are fighting a jabber, you sit back. But I have to come back a bit tighter.”
Joshua admits his performance against Kiwi Parker, which earned him a third world title belt, was perhaps affected by pressure.
He said: “This fight is interesting as fighting at Wembley is different as there is 80,000 there.
“I am going to go in there and relax. “In heavyweight boxing it’s not just losing. “You can get embarrassed and badly hurt in this game.
“I want to go in there and relax and out-class him, out-think him, out-smart him and hopefully I will be victorious.
“That fight with Parker was a lot of pressure because I thought the Wilder fight was coming next but you learn and I am going to go in there and have fun.”