As his fight against Robert Helenius draws ever nearer, Anthony Joshua has been reflecting on some of the losses he’s suffered in his career.
The most recent of those came in a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk last year in Saudi Arabia where, despite an improved performance in the eyes of many, ‘AJ’ did not do enough to claw the heavyweight world championship back from Usyk.
In a recent feature with DAZN Boxing, Joshua was asked which defeat hurt the most and was clearly not as happy with his own performance that night as some were, describing it as “weak.”
“Usyk 2 was a weak performance from me. I wasn’t supposed to lose in my head.
I give my life to this game, I give everything. Even talking about it now makes me choke up a bit. When you put everything into something and it’s not easy.
The only thing we get credit for is winning. There’s no silver medal in boxing.”
As is always the case, all eyes of British boxing will be on Joshua this weekend, as he takes on late replacement Helenius at the 02 Arena in London.
Joshua had been scheduled to rematch long time foe Dillian Whyte, however Whyte was forced out of the contest after a VADA test he submitted was found to have an adverse analytical finding.
Promoters Matchroom managed to agree a deal with Helenius in quick time and thus the show was saved, giving Joshua another much needed outing under Derrick James.
If Joshua comes through on Saturday night, it’s widely expected that he’ll finally face off against hard hitting American, Deontay Wilder, in January next year.