Anthony Joshua had to be held back in the aftermath of his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
The 32-year-old former two-time unified world heavyweight champion was bidding to become a three-time global ruler in a rematch against the Ukrainian on Saturday night.
Joshua, under the guidance of his new trainer Robert Garcia for the first time, was on the wrong end of a split decision at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia.
And having finally ventured backstage, after hearing tallies of 113-115, 115-113 and 116-112 handed in against him and descending into a bizarre rant which brought criticism from the boxing world and forced him into an apology, ‘AJ’ – who talked about nearly going to jail before finding boxing – saw his temper flare after the fight.
IntuBoxing posted the incident to their twitter:
Things got HEATED backstage last night with @anthonyjoshua after the fight 😳
📺 https://t.co/DqHv38bFFZ#Boxing#UsykJoshua2pic.twitter.com/nAYP3IUuf1
— IntuBoxing (@IntuBoxing) August 21, 2022
The ex-custodian of the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world titles in the sport’s premier division, who lost out on the opportunity to clinch the vacant Ring Magazine belt after the defeat, was urged to “keep it professional” by a backstage bystander and had to be guided back to his dressing room to prevent any further ugly scenes.
This came before Joshua was targeted by Tyson Fury, the WBC champion who now has his sights set on a potential £200million showdown with the former cruiserweight undisputed king Usyk for every belt in the weight class, and after he hit out at Vasiliy Lomachenko.