By: Sean Crose
Give former heavyweight Anthony Joshua this: He has guts. We’re not talking about the kind of courage that puts a person in a ring so that he can get hurt or killed. Here we’re talking about the courage it takes to tell the world that you’ve been emotionally crushed. Being honest in public is no small business – and it can carry significant consequences. After all, there are people out there – and no small number of them – who think that giving an honest opinion about a person’s current or official mental state is a sign of weakness. .
Joshua is clearly not that person, and that’s what he should be credited for. “I have high expectations of myself,” said the towering Briton Sports sky. “That’s why I feel like when I first lost (to Andy Ruiz on Joshua’s US debut), I never made excuses but I have my reasons.” Now, after once again being the highest rated in the ring, this time against Oleksandy Usyk in a match last September, Joshua is looking at matters differently. “This hurts me because I got 100%,” he admits. “No matter what. Everything is great. I just got in there and only lost to a better man that night, and it was heartbreaking.”
Without a doubt, it did.
“But,” Joshua added, “it gave me the motivation to pull myself out of that position. Mentally, it killed me, and I fought back, and I will redeem myself.” Now, the London-born is working hard to make that redemption possible, as there is already a rematch clause in his contract for the match against Usyk. That means a rematch is coming. “We’re talking about game planning, mindset, brain training, our approach to making the game, and what we’re getting out of it,” Joshua said. “The need for diet, sleep, recovery, thought training to what I am listening to music, motivational speech and the like.”
It should be noted that Joshua was able to change his overall fighting strategy before avenging his loss to Andy Ruiz in the rematch of their first fight. It’s also important to note that fellow heavyweight Tyson Fury has also publicly spoken about his own emotional issues and draws from his experience being the most dominant of all the current heavyweights. . However, each individual’s story is unique. With that in mind, it seems Joshua is now facing the future with the right mindset.
“I belong on the big stage,” he said. “I belong to a champion. I am among the names of this current generation.”
