Anthony Joshua slipped up because he has been given the red-carpet treatment his whole career, claims Peter Fury.
Fury is in Jeddah with his son Hughie for his clash with Samuel Peter on the undercard of Amir Khan’s July 12 showdown with Billy Dib and he says Joshua has been protected.
He claims Joshua suffered his shock loss to Andy Ruiz Junior because he has had five-star treatment in contrast to Hughie who has had to scrap for every opportunity.
“It’s still a closed shop that’s why Hughie has to take anybody, the hard route, which nobody else wants,” said Fury, who trained Tyson to victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
“He has to take fights like Kubrat Pulev in Bulgaria because he’s not going to get any gravy train. There’s no red carpet for him.
“But we’ve seen what red-carpet treatment does, because when the s**t hits the fan, you come undone and that’s what happened to Joshua.
“All the warning signs had been there for Joshua, Povetkin, Takam, smaller men hitting him clean. The writing was on the wall for him.
“In this game, if you’re only a big heavyweight puncher, you don’t last.”
Hughie, 24, who is 22-2-0, is rebuilding after his defeat to Pulev in October and Fury claims he was glad he lost because he realised he had to be more aggressive.
“There’s no smoke blown up anyone’s rear here,” he said. “He gets told if he’s not doing it right.
“If he hadn’t have got cut, he would have outboxed Pulev, but I wouldn’t have been happy with it because he was going back too much.
“I didn’t like anything he did in that fight and I told him afterwards. I told him that it was good he lost, that I was pleased he lost because that style was no good, to change it.
“We’ve been working on the gym and he has changed. People want to see some flair and not just being on the defensive all the time. It’s about landing some meaty shots and that’s what he’s been working on.”
* Amir Khan v Billy Dib is exclusively live on Channel 5 and the undercard on 5Spike on Friday, July 12
