Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ant rant just proves he’s human
OGOGO BACKS JOSHUA AFTER USYK OUTBURST
BY
ANTHONY OGOGO watched the social media pile-on which followed Anthony Joshua’s emotional speech last weekend and wondered why so many people were so quick to tear into him.
The pair were close when they boxed together on Great Britain’s 2012 Olympics team.
And Ogogo (right), who knows as well as anyone the difficulties being a professional sportsperson can throw at you, wishes critics were better able to appreciate the pressure cooker Joshua has been living in.
The London 2012 bronze medallist, who was forced to retire from a promising pro career by an eye injury suffered in 2016, said: “I don’t watch a great deal of boxing any more because it hurts so much, but I keep up with what’s going on.
“The pressure Joshua was under… he has just fought the best boxer in the world in Oleksandr Usyk and lost, and I’m sure he’ll have thought he was going to win because all boxers think they are going to win.
“But we’re all just human and he just showed human emotion.
“We’re layered as individuals and he just got really upset and showed his true self, but it doesn’t make him a bad person.
“I beg anyone to put themselves in the position he has been in for 10 years as one of the most famous athletes in the country, under the pressure he has been under, and not to crack at some point. I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier given the scrutiny he has been under.”
Ogogo has had desperately dark days since injury curtailed his career and, to his credit, he lays bare everything he has been through in the new BT Sport documentary After The Roar.
The film is presented by Brian O’Driscoll and also features interviews with AP McCoy and
Gareth Southgate, as the rugby legend looks at how sportsmen cope with retirement.
Ogogo added: “As a boxer, for 18 years, I was taught never to show vulnerability, to mask everything. If they hit you to your body and you cannot breathe, don’t show them, if they hurt you and your leg wobbles, hide it.
“So to reveal all your deepest, darkest secrets is difficult. I was able to mask what I was really going through, even to myself. I had no idea I was clinically depressed and I was very close to ending it all numerous times, but I’m so glad I didn’t and that I’m getting to the other side and I’m happy again.
“It’s still difficult to talk about because I’m bearing my emotions out,
I’m talking about my life, my struggles, and I’m showing vulnerability. But if
I’m open about my struggles, there will be someone going through their own who can take inspiration from it and the main thing I will tell them is, ‘Never give up’.”
After The Roar, the latest in the BT Sport Films series, will premiere on Friday, September 9 at 10pm on BT Sport 1.