Not even a broken back would make AJ pull out of fight
TO say that Anthony Joshua was disconcerted when the beefy Bulgarian due to be his fourth challenger for his world heavyweight crown withdrew from next Saturday’s slugfest in Cardiff is an understatement.
Surprised, confused? AJ was ‘p ***** off’. Not because he suspects that the replacement, Carlos Takam, will be harder to add to his perfect knockout record than Kubrat Pulev.
But because he would have to be close to death’s door himself before he pulled out of a fight.
‘If only he knew the injuries I’ve faced in camp,’ said Joshua, leaving the inference about Pulev’s ‘strained pectoral muscle’ hanging in the air at the Sheffield gym AJ shares with his old Olympic team-mates.
He went on to talk for the first time about the litany of ailments which have afflicted him before important bouts. All was not well immediately prior to his biggest fight of all, against Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley in April.
‘I went for a Thai massage,’ he added. ‘She pulled my arm right down by my leg and it cramped up my back. I swear I was walking bent double for weeks. But we crack on.
‘When I boxed Dominic Breazeale in my first world title defence, I had glandular fever. Just crack on. Before that I fought Michael Sprott with a fractured back. Crack on.’
The wearer of the IBF and WBA belts admits that doggedness does not always meet with the approval of his trainer Rob McCracken.
Joshua said: ‘Rob doesn’t like it. He says to me: “Josh, if I ever have to pull you out of a fight, you have to listen to me”.
‘I don’t like that. You build up to this one big moment. Then because of a niggle you’re going to let it go?
‘Anyway, once you’re in there, in the ring, the adrenaline takes over. I don’t think I’d ever pull out. Not unless it was deadly serious.’
The majority of boxers often go into fights carrying injuries without complaint. They do so even when there is much less money in the wallet than the minimum £10million Joshua will reportedly add on Saturday at the Principality Stadium.
Another pot of gold is in the offing next year if promoter Eddie Hearn can agree a unification fight with WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
The American, like most of the boxing public, is clamouring for that bonanza but Hearn says: ‘Deontay has a 50-50 financial split in his head. Over my dead body. That was okay with Wladimir, who brought so much to the table. But Wilder hasn’t had a really big fight yet.
‘I’d like him to build up by taking on Dillian Whyte in February.’
If Whyte were to win, Joshua would jump at a rematch with his London rival. Why?
‘I wanted him to replace Pulev in Cardiff,’ said Joshua. ‘But Eddie told me I had to go down one place in the IBF rankings to Takam to fulfil my mandatory defence.
‘Otherwise I may have texted Vitali Klitschko to ask his brother if he could be ready in 12 days to fight me!
‘I thought Wladimir might still have been obsessed enough about me to come back for a second fight. I was disappointed when he retired.
‘I reckon there should be four or five memorable fights in my career. Against Dillian and Wlad, we’ve had two. Loved it. Why not do it again?’
Wilder makes more sense, though not necessarily in the USA. Joshua said: ‘It used to be that everyone had to go to America. Now they’re coming over here to crack it. Boxing is bubbling here.’
First he has to deal with Takam, an Afro-Frenchman who has been stopped just once in his 39 fights and has scored 27 of his 35 victories inside the distance.
With that in mind, when Hearn told him: ‘We couldn’t let Pulev come out to fight before an 80,000 crowd less than fully fit’, Joshua was only half joking when he replied: ‘Why not? I’m the one who’s now got to fight this guy with a big punch and a head like a block of cement.’
Then he added the most startling revelation: ‘A strained pec, Kubrat? I’ve had a shoulder injury through camp for this fight.’
Only one thing for it then, AJ... Crack on.