ANTHONY JOSHUA is only a day into his reign as IBF heavyweight champion but heโs made no secret of his desire to fight the biggest names in the sport.
Virtually shrugging off the magnitude of winning a world crown in only his 16th pro bout, speaking backstage at the O2, Anthony said, โI knew I wasnโt losing so Iโm calm. The reason why I donโt want to make a big deal of it is when you win, I think youโve got to keep it balanced and if you lose youโve got to keep it balanced. You canโt let it get to you to your head when you win and you canโt let it get to your heart if you fail. So you just got to take it as it comes. We work hard. This stuff isnโt by luck, trust me. The attention, the building, the training. The micro-management. If you know me, you know how due diligent I am with my hustle, I donโt play games. Thatโs why Iโm pretty calm because I know what I want and Iโve got the greatest people around me to help me achieve my dreams so Iโm not going to let them down neither.โ
โWeโve got more to go. Probably when I retire on top Iโll be happy but at the minute Iโm still fighting. Iโve got to put this behind me and go on to the next destination,โ he continued.
That means working his way towards bigger names than Charles Martin, the champion he deposed with such ruthless ease on Saturday. โYou rewind โ Foreman, Ali, Frazier fought. Tyson, Holyfield, Lennox fought. Me, Tyson Fury, [David] Haye, itโs just an era that weโre in, we have to fight. We couldnโt go through this era of us guys without fighting. That would be silly. Weโll get it on when the timeโs right and everyone comes together and sits down properly. Itโs just bound to happen at some stage,โ Joshua said.
He promises the title win wonโt change his attitude. โAs soon as I take a seat someoneโs going to call me out again and Iโm going to have to step up and defend whatโs mine. So just a bit more hunger. Getting there is one thing, now maintaining it is going to be a bit harder so I just need to be a bit more disciplined now,โ Anthony concluded.