By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Anthony Joshua’s message for those wondering why his first professional defeat didn’t devastate him the way they expected is that he has dealt with worse things than this.
The British superstar’s seventh-round, technical-knockout loss cost him a huge payday for an eventual showdown with WBC champion Deontay Wilder. Allowing Andy Ruiz Jr. to stop him Saturday night damaged his expanding brand, too, but the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ took this shocking setback in stride.
The 29-year-old Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) impressively insisted on discussing his loss at a press conference in the wee hours of Sunday morning, more than two hours after Ruiz beat him at Madison Square Garden. Most media members already had left the venue when Joshua arrived because public relations employees told them that he wouldn’t attend to address them.
“Trust me, I come from a good family,” Joshua explained. “But where I was at in life [before boxing], I dealt with more sh*t than this. I’ve dealt with some real big losses and I’ve bounced back. And life is a journey. If I was to look at my setbacks back then, and I was to stop doing what I was doing, then I would’ve been f***ed. But I didn’t do that. I kept my head strong, worked like a champion and I managed to bounce back.
“So, I feel like this is just part of a journey that I’m on. This is boxing, and what I have to do is re-evaluate the situation, make it better and we go again. We didn’t come this far to kind of stop. We didn’t come this far to fold under pressure. We came this far, and I feel like we can definitely go a lot further.”
Hearn emphasized earlier Sunday morning that they’ll try to arrange the immediate rematch Ruiz contractually owes Joshua for October or November in the United Kingdom. This unforeseen loss will prevent the long-awaited fight with Wilder from happening at any point in the foreseeable future, but Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) doesn’t believe losing to Ruiz (33-1, 22 KOs) has done irreparable damage to his career.
“Naturally it does [set back heavyweight division],” Joshua said. “But if it was the end of the road, then I’d say, ‘Yeah,’ but for me, as I said with Eddie and the team in there, it’s what’s next. So, it’s just like a minor setback I would say, if that’s what we wanna call it, a minor setback. But, you know, the locks on the doors don’t change. We’re still family, we still love the sport, still a champ, and then we bounce back and go back to fighting, get my hands on those belts again.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.