Last week, Anthony Joshua finally made a point of responding to all the ongoing claims that he supposedly struggles to take a punch or is somewhat vulnerable.
Joshua decided to lay all his cards on the table and delve into detail on the three occasions he has been hurt in the gym.
Joshua shared that those experiences came in the European Championships when he had not been afforded the appropriate time to prepare for international tournament boxing.
The second occasion was early in his professional days in a sparring session with David Price and the third, of course, the first knockdown of his professional career in the sixth round of his 2017 fight with Wladimir Klitschko.
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“A lot of people have spoken about me getting dropped, hand on my heart, have used it as a PR stunt, in terms of what you’re using it as, too,” Joshua said at the kick-off press conference for his unification clash with Joseph Parker.
“It’s a marketability strategy. And when you want to talk about facts, the three times I’ve been hurt or dropped were in the European Championships when [my coach Rob] McCracken knows I was actually banned from the GB team because I was still getting into trouble.
“I went back to Watford, I stopped boxing and two weeks before that European Championships, I was called up to represent the country.
“I was very unfit but I didn’t get dropped, I was stopped. When your tank is empty, it’s hard to perform.”
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Additionally the undefeated, unified WBA, IBF and IBO world heavyweight champion touched on his progress in his preparations ahead of his second unification clash inside of a year following his titanic clash with the all-time great ‘Dr. Steelhammer’ Wladimir Klitschko.
Joshua feels he is in a much better place at this stage with 11 weeks left until the Joshua – Parker fight opposed to how he felt going into clashes with both Wladimir Klitschko and Carlos Takam in 2017.
“I am leaps and bounds ahead compared to the Klitschko and Takam fights,” said Joshua to The Guardian. “I’m watching what I eat, running further and doing more than I did last year.”
“Last week I did 20 rounds in the gym which I wasn’t even doing for Klitschko, and we’re still 11 weeks to the Parker fight.”
Lastly, Joshua also shared he intends to focus more on speed in this upcoming fight. Additionally ‘AJ’ underlined the significance that speed plays inside those ropes on fight night.
Time to unite a member of the family #AJBXNGpic.twitter.com/bjofilhvXD
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) January 16, 2018
“I think speed is in power. When you’re heavy and you try to club these durable fighters, It’s not that simple just to go ‘boom’.
“Just because I’m the most muscly man, it doesn’t mean I can just hit someone and knock them out. It’s the shot that you don’t see coming that knocks you out.”
When I’m quicker – bang, bang, bang – that’s when I can knock my opponents down a lot easier;” Joshua concluded.
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