Trainer Joe Gallagher has branded Anthony Joshua’s now infamous post-fight antics as a ‘hissy fit’ born out of frustration.
Speaking to Betfred’s Lightweight Boxing Show, Gallagher dissected the post-fight antics. When his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk was announced, Joshua took hold of two of the belts, dropped them to the ground, and left the ring before returning to take the microphone.
“When he walked out the ring he should’ve just carried on … Whoever said ‘come back in’ was wrong. Let him go.”
“Oleksandr Usyk got the stream back to the Ukrainians. They’re in the war, they want to hear from their world champion – not from Anthony Joshua going on about how he spent two weeks on remand somewhere.”
Gallagher, who trains junior-middleweight champ Natasha Jonas amongst others, recognised AJ’s outburst as disappointment stemming from coming up short.
“Basically what was happening was Anthony Joshua was having a hissy fit. It was the frustration. I’ve been there with [Mathew] Macklin – you had the perfect camp, the perfect build up, you had the perfect fight, you had the tactics on, and it didn’t happen.”
Whilst his comments on AJ weren’t exactly favourable, Gallagher went on to place the blame on his team rather than the fighter himself.
“I think Anthony Joshua has surrounded himself with so many people over the years – no one will tell him 1 you’re behind, 2 you lost that, and that showed when got back in the ring.”
“No one from his team – whether it be Freddie Cunningham, Eddie Hearn, or his trainers – stepped forward and said ‘give me that mic.’”
“They all went into the background and just watched the poor fella’ self-explode in front of the whole world.”
Since the dust has settled in Saudi, Joshua has released a statement promising to ‘be better.’
You can watch the full show below: