ANTHONY JOSHUA slammed fans who booed him during his victory over Robert Helenius.
The Brit won via a seventh round knockout despite a laboured performance.
AJ put in a cautious display and many of his supporters turned on him from round three as they booed and whistled at the O2 Arena.
Joshua was quizzed on reaction from fans as he went toe-to-toe with a reporter in a post-bout press conference.
He was first asked if the crowd’s reaction had impacted his performance.
Joshua replied: “Not necessarily, I think they don’t understand it is competitive boxing.
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“We are trying to shut each other’s advances down.
“I was watching certain fights tonight and they didn’t look as exciting as I thought they would.
“But it’s not that they don’t look exciting, it’s a game of chess, when you’re playing it is a thinking man’s sport.
“From the outside chess is a boring game, but everything I try to do they shut down.
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“Why am I going to go in there and trade from round one? Break him down.”
Joshua was then asked how it felt to be booed by fans, to which he responded: “Were they booing me or Helenius?
“That is the question, who were they booing?”
The reporter then suggested that fans wanted a quicker knockout.
AJ hit back, saying with a shrug: “Have any of them ever boxed before?”
He was also quizzed on if he was happy with his display, responding: “That is for my coach [Derrick James], I don’t really rate my performances, whatever the coach thinks.
“We can go back to the drawing board and I know there is a lot of things we can improve on.
“I felt better than I did in April [versus Jermaine Franklin] and that is the main thing.”
Joshua could next face Deontay Wilder in January if a deal can be sealed with the bout set to take place in Saudi Arabia.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
