BOXING fans and pundits feared Anthony Joshua suffered a concussion in his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
The former unified heavyweight champion flew into a fit of rage after suffering a second successive points defeat to the slick southpaw in their Saudi rematch.
He did, however, repeatedly praise Usyk for his display in their rematch in his bizarre and x-rated post-fight interview.
Joshua’s behaviour left many stunned, including training partner Frazer Clarke.
The Olympian said: “Maybe he was concussed. I would have taken a dog to take that microphone off him.’
“I apologise for the team, someone from the team should have saved him. Anthony’s a good person, it was out of character.
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“Someone should have jumped in and stopped him. It was only words at the wrong time.”
Boxing fans were similarly stunned, with one saying: “Is Anthony Joshua concussed?”
Another said: “As bad as it was, got to cut Anthony Joshua some slack…he was concussed, exhausted and emotional.”
And another said: “Anthony Joshua surely concussed there? None of that made any sense, just spouting s***e that makes no sense, what a strange speech.”
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Clarke, and many others, believe one of Joshua’s team should’ve saved him from himself by wrestling the mic from him.
He said: “As a gym friend and a friend in general, for anyone offended in general by what happened.
“I think I can apologise on his behalf for the outburst.
“His team might be mad at me for saying this, but I feel he was hung out to dry there.
“Somebody should have saved him from himself.
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“It’s words, but in the true reflection of boxing, that was Usyk’s time to celebrate that victory and he didn’t get to do it straight away and I don’t think that was right.
“Anthony is a great person and has done a lot for a lot of people, a lot for me, but I feel like he had a bit of a bad one there and it was out of character.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk