Anthony Joshua has revealed his friends told him he’d messed up against Andy Ruiz Jr and ordered him back to the gym.
The Brit lost his three heavyweight world titles to his chubby challenger in one of the sport’s great upsets in New York in June.
Joshua looked to have struggled to adapt to Ruiz’s style having been preparing to face Jarrell Miller until he failed a drug test six weeks before the fight.
The dethroned champion immediately triggered the rematch clause in his contract and will bid to win back his belts in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
And just days out from the fight, Joshua recalled the reaction to his first professional defeat.
“My close friends, they’re friends for friends, they’re not really boxing people so they don’t worry about boxing,” he said.
“Some people are realists, you f***ed up man, you’ve gotta get back in the gym.
“I rate them people because they’re straight up to me.
“Some people. they respect me outside of boxing, they know me outside of boxing and they make sure I’m OK as a person.
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“It was a mixture of emotions.”
Joshua insisted he was able to move on from the defeat quickly by remaining in the Big Apple and hitting the gym.
“I stayed in New York for two weeks after and when I went to sleep I thought about it,” he said.
“The more you go out the more you accept the reality but I couldn’t let go of my dream.
“I stayed in the gym, that was the best thing for me and that’s what I need to do after I win.”
