Anthony Joshua has admitted that his loss to Oleksandr Usyk has weighed heavily on him. He however added that he “is using it as fuel to improve”.
In a recent interview with iFL TV, Joshua said, “A lot of times I wake up in the morning and the fight and fighting is on my mind. After the fight, you sleep on it. You sleep on it after the fight and then what happens is you wake up on it and I’m waking up on it and it’s the right thing because you’ve got to use it as fuel for the day.
While it has been fuel for Joshua, he feels it has taken a toll on him. He admits that he can’t shrug it off as any old loss and says he deeply cares.
“I think about it a lot and not just on a physical thing but up here as well. I think about it a lot.
“That one made me think a lot and I could go on but I just care, I actually care. I don’t think, ‘eh, it’s a loss’. I actually deeply care.”
One element which also hasn’t helped Joshua is the constant speculation that he should switch out his coach. Joshua has been travelling quite a bit and training with some top fighters in America which has only added to the speculation.
As he was in Dubai for the interview, Joshua discussed his movements but asked that people let him live.
“I’m out here for ten days, I’ve trained six times, I had four days rest. I’m supposed to be resting but we still trained. We’re training and just ticking over, getting ready.
I train with whoever. Jonathan Banks was there, I spoke to him about training. Why is everyone on my fucking case? Whether it’s about weight, whether it’s about my… let me live. Let me live, I do what I want, just let me live.”