Mike Tyson’s warning to Anthony Joshua

MIKE TYSON has some simple advice for new heavyweight king Anthony Joshua — stay humble.

Tyson joined Joshua’s legion of admirers after watching his 11th-round knockout of Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley last weekend.

Joshua matched Tyson’s feat of winning his first 19 heavyweight bouts by knockouts and the American legend warned: ‘It’s so easy to have a big head when you’re successful all the time.

‘It’s easy to be arrogant when you’ve come from the hood and no-one has taught him humbleness yet. You don’t arrive humble in this world. You have humbleness thrust upon you.

‘I went nuts, he’s going to go nuts. He’s talking crazy right now already,’ laughed Tyson (below). ‘I’d say his only weakness is not keeping his hands up to guard against a right hand.’ ‘Could he beat Marciano’s [49-0] record? Yeah, he could,’ says the man who was the youngest boxer to win the world heavyweight title, aged 20 in 1986. ‘He’s bigger than another undefeated guy in Floyd [Mayweather]. Floyd’s a great fighter, but when you go and see a fight you want to see someone get hurt. You want to see Klitschko against Joshua. ‘You don’t want to see a fight go 12 rounds, where guys are patting each other. He is different to all the other heavyweights. Joshua is exciting. When he exploded like that against Klitschko, the whole game changed.

‘All the little guys who have been making money aren’t going to be making money anymore. It will all go to Joshua and the heavyweights.

‘The first billionaire in boxing? That’s possible, money is so easy to make now, especially in this sport. But he needs to think about one fight at a time.’

If the next fight happens to be Tyson Fury, the American is sure Joshua will triumph.

He said last year that the man named after him was ‘the best heavyweight since me’. But Fury’s 18-month spell of inactivity following the former IBF, WBA and WBO champion’s November 2015 defeat of Klitschko and Joshua’s irresistibility have completely altered Tyson’s opinion.

He says: ‘I just don’t think he could beat this guy, just like I didn’t think Fury could beat Klitschko. You never know. Fury is built like a monster. But Joshua (right) would be favourite because of his speed and ferocious punching power.’

Fury vacated the WBA and WBO titles he held last October after admitting using cocaine, after which the British Boxing Board of Control suspended his boxing licence. He must await the outcome of tomorrow’s hearing with UK Anti-Doping.