Back in May, a video of former heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, threatening to ‘crack students’ jaws’ went viral.
Joshua himself has stayed pretty quiet about the altercation.
In a recent interview with JD Sports, Joshua was asked how he deals with ‘the hate’ that inevitably comes with his level of fame:
“Online is very different to real life. I walk through this uni, I show people so much love – people put a picture [of me] on their flats and it’s amazing.
“The love is amazing and I always believe as well we tend to focus so much on the hate – but I’ve got so many people that love and admire me and I’ve inspired through what I’ve done.”
When asked specifically about that viral clip, ‘AJ’ responded:
“With that situation with the uni students, they’re actually cricket players, they’re not uni students they’re actually like 25 they’re not like 15 year olds.
“They live next door. I just couldn’t sleep one night and one of our guys says if you’re ever in a situation where you can’t sleep there are a few things you can do; go for a walk and get fresh air, or take a hot shower.
“I go on a walk, the same guys I showed love to were there, was about five of them in the room and they started heckling abuse at me. So I’m looking, like it’s like four in the morning so I’m like there must not be anyone else out here so it must be [aimed at] me.
“That’s just what I done, I told the guys – listen I’m here to work, I’m not here to play games, I’ve shown you the ultimate respect since I’ve been here and if you want to start going down this path of trading words and trading whatever, it’s fine with me.
“So i’m going to ask you- how would you like it if I break your jaw?’”
In justification the former two-time champ went on to say:
“I didn’t want to address it like that but I did really feel bad for any other students that those guys feel that they can do that to and that don’t have the courage to address them and tell them ‘listen that’s wrong what you’re doing watch yourselves.’“
The altercation took place at Loughborough university, where Joshua had based his camp to prepare for his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk on August 20th. Now entering the final weeks before the fight, the Brit has decided to relocate his training to Saudi Arabia to fully acclimatise before the biggest fight of his career to date.