BOXING Legend inspiring Britain’s World champion KNIGHT TO REMEMBER
AJ: I would lo ve to follow in Sir Henry Cooper’s footsteps and be honoured by the Queen
ANTHONY JOSHUA says he would love to emulate Sir Henry Cooper by becoming the second British boxer to receive a knighthood.
Joshua, the IBF, WBA and IBO heavyweight champion, was awarded an MBE after winning super-heavyweight gold at the London Olympics in 2012.
And should he add the WBO and WBC belts to his collection this year, then there will be calls for the ultimate honour to be bestowed.
Even if they’re not coming from his promoter Eddie Hearn, who t old him: “There’s no way I’m calling you ‘Sir’.”
J oshua f aces WBO champion Joseph Parker on March 31 and is then eyeing WBC holder Deontay Wilder.
He said: “100 per cent I’d fancy it [a knighthood].
“It’s interesting. I’ve seen two things when it comes to receiving an MBE.
Ambassador
“Do you need an MBE to give you the credentials to say you have done well?
“You already do your part, regardless. So, with or without it, I’m going to be who I am.
“And I actually know someone who turned it down because they said, ‘For what I do, I don’t need to be given an MBE’. I understand their point as well – with or without it, I’ll still going be an ambassador for the sport.
“And if I don’t win it, I’m not going to be upset and be, like, ‘Oh, for goodness sake’ and start acting a different way – because I will be who I am until the end.
“But if I get honoured for it, I’m more than happy to take it.”
Honours and plaudits are already coming thick and fast.
And if Joshua can add Parker’s “strap”, as he calls it, to the three he already holds, then he would be one fight away from becoming the first Brit to hold all five heavyweight titles.
He wants that fight to be on home soil rather than in the US. Joshua added: “I would love Wilder to be at Wembley.
“I wouldn’t mind going to the States, if people were to say, ‘ Look, Josh, this will cement your legacy, this is a great opportunity to go to America’, I’ll definitely think about it.
Luxury
“But no one has said it and I don’t want to be like, ‘Let’s just go to Vegas because everyone else has done it’.
“I still train at Finchley ABC, so a lot of my support is home-based.
“And I always say it gives people an opportunity from my local area to travel half an hour to Wembley for one of the biggest fights in boxing history. That’s why I don’t want to travel to America just for the sake of it, because it limits a lot of people from being able to watch me.
“Wembley would be sick f or t hat f i ght in t he summer.”
For now, the Parker fight is Joshua’s focus and, even t hough he i s a multimillionaire, there’s nothing luxurious about the digs he uses in Sheffield when he moves his training camps there, pre-fight.
“I’m in the same flat,” said Joshua. “The only luxury is that I’ve put up is blackout blinds.
“That was the only thing that was annoying when I was trying to sleep in the afternoons.”