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Former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua does not believe that he gets the proper respect from the critics – especially from those within the United States.
Joshua will be looking to bounce back when he challenges Oleksandr Usyk on August 20 in Saudi Arabia, in a rematch for the IBF, IBO, WBO, WBA heavyweight titles.
Usyk outboxed Joshua over twelve rounds back in September of last year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Joshua made his Unites States debut in June of 2019 at New York’s Madison Square Garden – and it ended in disaster when he was dropped four times by Andy Ruiz before the fight was waved off in seven rounds.
Six months later, in Saudi Arabia, Joshua got revenge when he easily boxed past Ruiz to claim a dominant unanimous decision.
He feels the initial outcome against Ruiz affected his credibility in the United States.
“I feel like I never got that respect. When I came into this division it was whack and I thought ‘let me get in this game and take on anyone and everyone, it doesn’t matter who’. Maybe it was because I was British that nobody was respecting my thing,” Joshua told JD Sports.
“I wanted to bring the heavyweight division to Great Britain and show that we are solid. Because I think that sometimes people just think we drink tea and eat biscuits and sit with the Queen. I used to have people say things like ‘yo AJ, dawg, what’s the Queen like?’ I felt I was not getting looked upon as someone who was a dominant force in the heavyweight division. People seemed to just think I was Anthony Joshua who liked looking in the mirror and had an ego.
“When big Anthony Joshua wins and becomes three-time heavyweight world champion, I am going to dash the belts, because you have to learn to respect ME as a person. I don’t want to be respected because of the belts that I hold. I want to be respected for the man you see.”