Anthony Joshua has explained what Oleksandr Usyk said to him in the aftermath of their second fight that ‘triggered’ his infamous breakdown. Usyk tried to console Joshua following the decision loss, but his attempts were in vain as AJ tossed the Ukrainian’s belts over the top rope and stormed out of the ring before returning to snatch the microphone and deliver an impassioned speech.
Joshua has apologised for his actions time and time again but rarely discusses the reason behind his bizarre meltdown. Reflecting on the events during an interview with the BBC, he revealed that Usyk complimenting him on being ‘big and strong’ patronised him.
“Listen, I’m not perfect and it’s not the right thing to have done,” he said. “I didn’t speak to Usyk but I spoke to Wladimir [Klitschko] and said give Usyk a pat on the shoulder and tell him well done and I apologise, that’s man-to-man.
“But it was just raw, and it may not make sense to a lot of people, but it made a lot of sense to me. And it was just how much it means, to a degree. I thought I would feel like that at the end of my career – when it’s all said and done, I’d just be like, ‘Wow, what a rollercoaster, I made it through the trenches.’
“I’m aware of that because I am a black fighter, so when he said I’m big and strong it was just like alarm bells going off. There’s loads of things that were triggering me at the time and it was just pure, raw, uncut emotion.”
Joshua returns to the ring for the first time since the incident on April 1 against Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena, London. Providing all goes well against the American, his promoter Eddie Hearn plans to stage a rematch with Dillian Whyte in June before closing out the year with a blockbuster showdown against either Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury in December.
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