IT’S ALL IN THE MINDSET
Joshua can win back his four titles but says ‘belts don’t define the man’
BOXING Walking the walk ahead of Ruiz rematch
ANTHONY JOSHUA hasn’t missed a thing about being world champion – thanks to his mindset.
The 30-year-old will challenge Andy Ruiz Junior in the Saudi Arabian city of Diriyah on Saturday in a bid to win back the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles the Mexican American took off him in June.
He lost the belts on his US debut in Madison Square Garden but, even so, he insists he hasn’t felt any different in the six months since he had to hand them over.
Missed
“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 walked as a champion 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.
“I’m not really someone who has the big trophy cabinet or something like that.
“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 and made six defences of the belt, while adding the others to it in his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, before succumbing to Ruiz (below).
Asked whether the defeat had prompted a change in mentality last week, Joshua hit back by declaring, ‘I haven’t become a p **** overnight’.
And, expanding on that, he added: “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.
Loss
“You can’t ask me about how I feel after a loss, you have to hold some regard to what we’re doing in this boxing industry, that’s probably where I’m coming from.
“And that’s where I listen now to what people say and it’s like, ‘Put some respect by our name’.
Despite his desire to prove his doubters wrong and his wish for more respect, ultimately there is only one person Joshua feels he needs to prove himself to now.
“People don’t mention the PR team, the trainers, they mention Anthony Joshua,” he said.
“So I have to prove it to myself and that’s where the hunger comes from, isn’t it?”