Anthony Joshua laughed off jibes that he has a glass jaw as fake news in his first face-to-face meeting with Joseph Parker in London and then heard his heavyweight rival apologise for calling him “the king of steroids”.
Joshua’s heart, hand speed and ability to take a punch have all been questioned by Parker’s camp in recent months, with the WBO heavyweight champion suggesting Joshua has been knocked down several times in sparring. However Joshua, who will put his WBA super, IBF and IBO belts on the line against Parker on 31 March in Cardiff, insisted he had been hurt only three times in his career.
“There is a lot of talk about me being dropped,” he said, “but it’s only happened three times. The first was the European championships, when only two weeks before I had been called back into the programme, because I was banned from the GB team. I was very unfit but I got stopped not dropped.
“The second time was with David Price, I came out of a police cell the day before and went up there to spar. Price is a puncher and that was down to lack of experience. And [Wladimir] Klitschko taught me that it will take more than a human to stop me from going where I am going. The rumours the Parker camp have heard are fake news.”
At the weekend Parker had also suggested Joshua was the “king of steroids” but on Tuesday he rowed back on the remark. “They accused me of being the king of pies, so that was the first thing that came into my head,” he admitted. “It’s one of those things you say without thinking and it wasn’t the best thing to say.”Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said he had paid “something like £30,000” to ensure the fighters would be tested with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association on top of random testing through UK Anti-Doping. “The last three or four fights we have been tested eight times in camp by Vada and Ukad over a 12-week period,” he added.
