Joshua not worried by Klitscho’s tactics

ANTHONY Joshua insists he has been unaffected by Wladimir Klitschko’s attempted mind games because they are so similar to others he has already encountered.

The Ukrainian revealed he last week recorded his prediction for tonight’s IBF and WBA world heavyweight title fight at Wembley onto a memory stick, having on Wednesday contributed to Joshua waiting to start his public workout.

Klitschko has also been consistently respectful to the IBF champion to the point of appearing to attempt to soften his edge, but it was the fight prediction that particularly stood out and with which Joshua felt so similar.

Before Joshua’s defeat of Kevin Johnson – who once lost to Klitschko’s older brother Vitali – in May 2015, the American insisted he had already written a book in which he revealed how to defeat the Briton.

Joshua won convincingly and such a book is yet to emerge, so when asked about Klitschko’s latest ploy, the 27-year-old said: “At the time when I fought Kevin Johnson, at the press conference before he was saying he’s written a book.

“And you can buy it, and he’s going to tell the world how he’s going to beat me: said he had the antidote.

“This was the first time I experienced anything like that, so I was thinking ‘Damn, has he actually written a book?’ That was interesting.

“When (Klitschko) did say it this time, I thought to myself ‘Ah, luckily I’ve heard this before’. It’s strategy, isn’t it? I’m just focusing on the fight, I’m not downloading no USB and bringing that to press conferences. I didn’t take it the way he wanted to express it.”