NICE GUY JOSHUA’S MR NASTY IN RING
Trainer hails Ant’s killer instinct
ANTHONY JOSHUA is summed up simply by the first man to teach him how to box as: “A nice guy outside of the ring, but a nasty motherf **** r inside it.”
The words are from Sean Murphy, one of the coaches from Finchley Amateur Boxing Club in Barnet where Joshua’s boxing journey started.
On Saturday night the unbeaten IBF heavyweight champion’s career reaches its latest high when he takes on Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium.
Murphy (inset) has been shunted into the spotlight in recent days after a video went viral of Joshua giving him a new BMW with his own name inscribed in the ashtray.
But Murphy is just happy seeing Joshua go from the novice fighter he first met into one of Britain’s biggest sports stars – and remembering where it all started.
“I am really proud but what makes me more proud is that he hasn’t forgotten where he has come from,” said Murphy, who has a Commonwealth Games gold medal to his name and British and Commonwealth professional titles.
“I rang him up last summer and I said we are doing a little awards evening for the kids. He came and brought his IBF belt. He spent four hours at the club.
Riches
“Not long after turning pro, he rang me up and said, ‘I want to do something for the club Sean, what can I do?’. He kitted it all out with new punch bags. He said anything you need I will get it for you.”
That certainly came true when Joshua delivered that BMW but nobody could have imagined the riches Joshua would have earned when he first walked into the gym in 2008.
Joshua had started lifting weights he bought at Argos at home, not long after moving to London from Watford with his mum Yeta, when his cousin Ben Ileyemi told him he might be better joining him down at the boxing club.
Murphy said: “He was there for six weeks and he disappeared. I bumped into him in St Albans.
“It was Monday day time and I said to him, ‘Where have you been? We have a doctor coming to do medicals and if you’re not back in the gym by Wednesday, then you won’t be boxing’. He was there.”
Joshua would have 26 bouts at
Finchley with just one defeat to Dillian Whyte in his third contest, a loss he would avenge in the pro ranks.
There was a novice title and ABAs before England scouts and GB performance director Rob McCracken spotted him – but not without the odd bump along the way before that.
Murphy recalled: “I think he was still on tag at the time. He was driving a hire car, had a couple of phones and I said, ‘Josh, what are you doing?’.
“He went, ‘This and that’. I told him if he wanted to have a go at boxing, he had to sort himself out and stop doing whatever stuff he was up to because it was no good. He sorted himself out.”
Murphy knew Joshua, 27, was special, but never gave him special treatment. He would wait his turn for pads like when he was ABA champion.
He believes it is Joshua’s nasty streak inside the ring that has helped the London 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist to 18 straight knockouts in the professional ranks.
He added: “Josh comes across a nice person, but he’s a nasty motherf **** r when he wants to be. He wouldn’t have achieved everything he has if he wasn’t. He knows when to turn it on.”
Murphy, who will be ringside on Saturday, added: “He has got four tickets for me ringside and has given me 20 in the Royal Box for the lads at the club. They all look up to him.”
Just another example of how Joshua looks after the men who made him.