ANTHONY JOSHUA has finally explained why he felt the need to confront a group of Loughborough University students in the early hours of one morning last month.
A video showing the London 2012 Olympic champion threatening to crack the ‘glass jaws’ of the youngsters went viral and Joshua came in for some criticism for his decision to react.
The story goes that Joshua was verbally abused from a window of the block of university halls which stand opposite the hotel he stays in during training camp. His promoter Eddie Hearn has described the taunts as ‘X-rated’.
Joshua then used the intercom buzzer to gain access to the building and took off his shoes before giving the students a dressing down.
And now Joshua has told his side of the story, insisting that he had no choice but to respond.
He said: “One night I couldn’t sleep at 3am so I went for a walk. My hotel and their block are opposite each other so it’s not like I wouldn’t see them again.
“And the reason I had to address them is that they cannot get too comfortable calling me names from a window. I’m here to work.
“I told them ‘I am here to work, I am not playing games with anyone and they were crossing the wrong person’.
“I also feel sorry for any student that might need to walk past that window and gets shit shouted at them and then feels like they can’t because they are afraid of getting abused or threatened again.
“I am a normal person and I have good and bad days, you cannot expect me to be different to anybody else because of what I have to lose.
“You could take it all, take everything I have, and I will still be the same man. I don’t act a certain way because of what I want to keep what I have, I am just who I am.
“If you cross mee, you are crossing the wrong person. I don’t take shit from anyone, that’s No.1.
“And those students were not kids, they were 6ft plus. I showed them so much respect when I first got there, I buy all of them in that little area of the uni 100 pizzas every weekend, I try to do what I can for all people and they are uni students.
“There were four or five of them and that’s the only reason I dealt with them in that fashion. I had to let them know I’m not the one to do that.
“I told them that, if they see me on my own again and they want to shout that shit at me, I will break your jaw.
“We left it at that and I spoke to them afterwards and we shook hands.
“They don’t look at me anymore.”