ANTHONY JOSHUA somehow held his nerve and avoided a brawl after drug cheat rival Jarrell Miller sneaked up behind him and called him a “p***y”.
While the 34-year-old London 2012 legend was explaining his new training partnership with fellow Englishman Ben Davison ahead of Saturday night’s Otto Wallin fight, the despicable Miller tried to drag up their 2019 row with a sick suckerpunch slur.
The American – who faces Brit Daniel Dubois this weekend – was scheduled to be AJ’s first US opponent before he failed a handful of tests for numerous performance-enhancing drugs.
And Joshua’s career was ravaged by late-replacement opponent Andy Ruiz Jr dropping him four times and stopping him in brutal fashion.
But somehow when confronted by the 25st doper, who came within inches of AJ and growled “I knew I smelled p***y”, ice-cool Joshua ignored his grubby attention-grab to focus on a weekend win inside the ropes.
He calmly told SunSport: “I have to just let him know he is not even in my sights. He is beneath me.
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“In reality, I was thinking, ‘Why do I even address that clown? He is beneath me’.
“I have bigger and better things to focus on. He is a clown.
“I am fully focused on Otto Wallin, after this week I will tell you everything but right now Wallin is the only focus.”
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It wasn’t long, however, after he left the interview table that AJ began exchanging words with ‘Big Baby’.
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Miller said to Joshua: “I smelled p***y from day one.”
AJ then dismissed the American’s claims that he’s been ducking him, saying: “You don’t know me, bro.
Look at my record. Who have I ducked?”
Joshua ended his decade-long partnership with Team GB mastermind Rob McCracken after the second Oleksandr Usyk defeat in 2022, that cost him his hard-earned WBA, IBF and WBO belts.
A handful of replacements have been in his corner since – from Angel Fernandez to Derrick James – but only Robert Garcia has publicly criticised him repeatedly.
This Saudi showdown came at seven weeks’ notice and James was tied up with a December 2 fight, so Davison has helped his Hertfordshire neighbour and the heavyweight expects mutual loyalty and no lies.
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He explained: “I have been around a lot of coaches in my time, a lot of different gyms, which has been good.
“I was thinking the other day ‘it will be interesting to hear what Ben has to say about me’.
“Because some of my trainers have said that I am not dedicated and I don’t work hard.
“But I have been around enough coaches now and if you did a survey you would probably get more proper answers than people that are chatting s***.
“I think it has been really good with Ben, as it has been with Derrick.
“I have a great relationship with Derrick, he messaged me today actually but I have to stay focused, I am not on my phone as much, I am not replying to many people.
“Afterwards we will catch up and I am sure I will be back in Texas again working with him soon”.
Davison, 27, rocketed to notoriety when he helped mentor Tyson Fury from the 28-stone abyss in 2015 to Deontay Wilder tormentor in 2018, even living in his family home for 14 months.
He was in the corner the night Fury survived a 47-stitch gash to beat Wallin on points in 2019 but AJ is not interested in learning anything from his old Gypsy King enemy.
He added: “Only from a tactics point-of-view. Nothing to do with character.
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“I have never asked: ‘what was Fury like?’ or ‘what was his preparation like?’
“Ben has more respect than to talk about his former fighters like that.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
