Ant ‘N’ deck

‘ASSASSIN’ JOSHUA HAS PARKER IN HIS SIGHTS

punches and footwork. They will tell him, ‘You can hit him [Joshua] with a left hook’ – and it isn’t happening. ‘You can hit him with a right hand’ – and it isn’t happening.

“They will say, ‘He’s going to gas in round six or round seven, he has stamina problems’ – and I’m still there. ‘He can’t take a punch’ – and I’m still there in round whatever...

“My job is to knock each one [of those assumptions about me] off the list as each round goes on. Just break him down. He’ll soon realise he’s in with a real one – 100 per cent I will break his spirit and mentality.”

This is a third stadium fight for Joshua, his second at the Principality, after he and Wladimir Klitschko sold out Wembley in April last year. Joshua knows that Parker, for whom this will be a ‘first’, will find it tough in front of up to 80,000 people.

Joshua said: “A certain amount of noise can smash glass, based on the frequency. And that sort of noise, booming, it gets to you in a fight.

“The atmosphere can swallow you. It’s crazy. I don’t know how he will deal with it but the first time you’re in a stadium fight, you realise there are so many eyes on you.

“You get desperate and start questioning everything, ‘Are my boots right? Are my shorts right? Do I look all right?’

“Some people aren’t comfortable, they’re fidgety, they’re not who they really are. That’s what happens sometimes when you’re in an arena you haven’t been in before, in front of so many people.

“I tried to block the noise out before, but that was a mistake – you have to ride the energy. You just have to embrace it because it’s overpowering.”

Parker’s previous fight in the UK saw him hold on to his title against Hughie Fury last September – but Joshua says Fury got his tactics wrong.

“I always say, ‘You don’t steal the belt, you slaughter the king, like I did with Klitschko, you take his head off ’,” Joshua added. “If you want that championship belt, you go to hellfire and back.”