£70m CARVE-UP
ANTHONY JOSHUA hasn’t missed a thing about being world champion – thanks to his hustler mindset.
The 6ft 8ins heavyweight will challenge Andy Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia on Saturday in a bid to win back the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles the Mexican-American boxer took off him.
He is desperate to get his hands back on the belts he lost on his US debut back in June through grit and hard work.
Even so, he insists he hasn’t felt any different in the six months since he had to hand them over.
“No, there’s nothing I’ve missed,” said Joshua. “I’ve always said the belt should never define the man.
“You have to walk as a champion before anyway and I did that before I even had a belt.
“You see certain fighters come along, they get to championship level and you see their whole demeanour change.
“You see the cars, the chains… but I was this guy way before I had a belt round my waist.
“So when you ask me this question, ‘Is there anything I miss?’ The answer is, ‘No,’ because I’m the same person through and through.
“With and without the belts it’s a championship mindset and a championship spirit. I only used to look at the belts when I had to take them to commercial shoots.”
Joshua insists the defeat to Ruiz is fully behind him and that he is fully focused on what lies ahead.
“Bang, next one. Bang, next one. Bang, next one,” he added.
“This is hustle, this is grind, this ain’t about patting myself on the back. This is strictly hustle.
“All we do is look forward, I don’t really care about what happened in the past.”
The past saw 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medallist Joshua crowned world champion in 2016 in his 16th professional fight.
He beat Charles Martin to win the IBF title, while adding the others to it in his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, before succumbing to Ruiz (right).
Asked whether the defeat had prompted a change in mentality last week, Joshua hit back by declaring, ‘I haven’t become a p***y overnight.’
And expanding on that, he said: “What do people think this is? This is fighting.
“One loss doesn’t take the spots off a cheetah. I came into boxing to fight, I didn’t come to be a journeyman. I’ve been champion, I’ve been Olympic champion, I’ve been world silver medallist.
“We don’t play games when it comes to boxing, we’re serious and I know after I took the loss and I’ve had time to reflect, it’s like, ‘F ****** hell, I took this sh*t seriously.’
“And I want to take it more seriously because I’m going to that next level.
“And when I win, I will be like, ‘F*** everybody,’” he said, flipping both middle fingers and letting out a sharp laugh.
Despite his desire to prove the doubters wrong, ultimately there is only one person Joshua feels he needs to prove himself to now.
He said: “After I took the loss, you start hearing what people really thought. You hear people talk and it’s like they’ve always underestimated me anyway. Which is a good thing.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a team sport, this game, so I have to prove it to myself.
“People don’t mention the PR team, the trainers, they mention Anthony Joshua.
“So I have to prove it to myself and that’s where the hunger comes from, isn’t it?”
ANDY RUIZ JR goes into Saturday’s contest holding all the belts but it is Anthony Joshua who is getting the biggest slice of the cake. Some estimates reckon the Watford fighter will trouser in excess of £70million.
But Joshua said: “When you look at it, it’s like, you earn £100, you pay a lot to the tax man and before you know it you’re left with, in reality, 30 or 40 per cent. “So it’s not what it really seems. “You have to manage yourself and not get flustered about what you think is yours. “Honestly, one of my main objectives in this sport was to not be owned, not be taken advantage of.
“When I met Eddie Hearn I said, ‘You’re not like Don King, are you?’
“It’s difficult. You put so much into it. “And that’s what I mean about the belts – as much as they’re important to you today, when your career is over, someone else comes up and takes the thing and you have to move on.”