Anthony Joshua exclusive: Now I’ll take out the rest…one by one

BIG FIGHT DIARY It was my dream to KO a legend in a big stadium, so where do I go from here? I want to fight Tyson Fury but if I have to go through the division to keep it entertaining then I will

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Anthony Joshua

2 May 2017

If you’d asked me at the start my career what I wanted to achieve, I would have said I want to be a fighter, fight one of the legends of the sport in a big stadium and end that by a knock-out in the later rounds of a war. This is dream come true stuff.

People made a lot of my inexperience before the fight and before it I’d had just 44 professional rounds. Now it feels like I’ve gone 144!

Sugar Ray Leonard said it doesn’t always matter about the skills and ability you have, there comes a time when you have to show character and go to the trenches.

I don’t want to be in fights like the war with Wladimir Klitschko but, if I have to, I know that I will come out on top.

My preference would have just been to go ‘bang, bang’ and get him out of there in style but it became a real guts and glory fight, and that helped the entertainment value.

Understandably, it’s the best fight that I’ve ever been in.

But this is just the beginning. I’ve learned so much from every round in there with a great fighter like Wladimir and that can only help me when I go on to bigger and better things.

The buzz is there now and it would be silly to let it dip.

I am going to have my physio treatment, work outside the gym for a few weeks and live normally but I want to maintain what we’ve been building on because it would be crazy to let all the hard work go.

I want to get stronger and when looking back at the fight I’ll be making notes on how to improve as I would like to say to my trainer Rob McCracken, “What do you think about working on X, Y and Z in the gym?”

As a fighter, I want to show I can learn, adapt and improve in the gym. I know I have to improve. How events unfolded was a nice achievement and great to be part of but I know people are going to look at my flaws.

So who’s next and where do I go from here? I know they are questions a lot of people are asking and that’s what I’ve got a great team around me for.

They’ll lay out the options on the table and I’ll pick one but I think I already showed on Saturday night I can knock anyone out. I always embrace a challenge and I’ve never shied away from competition — I don’t back down from anyone. So if it works out for my career, I’ll definitely relish the challenge against Tyson Fury or anyone else for that matter.

Fury has come from the ground up, he’s an ordinary guy who has achieved great things.

He’s back in training and he’s getting into shape and that’s good for boxing so I hope that he comes back to his very best.

The fans want the Fury fight and I do, too. It’s not like I am calling someone out randomly or drawing attention to someone random.

I’ve heard and seen people talking about that fight and it feels that we’re heading in that direction. I like to entertain and if that’s a fight that will bring entertainment to the sport again, then I would love to be involved. If I have to go through everyone in the divisions, then great. I am not hearing, “Let’s see Fury v Wilder or Wilder v Parker” it’s always, “We want AJ versus Wilder, Fury and Parker”.

So if I have to go through the division to keep it entertaining, then that’s what we’ll do — take them out one by one.

But I don’t just like to win, I want to do it in good fashion as it adds stock to my value. There’s different ways to skin a cat and we certainly showed that in the most entertaining fashion.

I know that there’s a kid somewhere watching what we are achieving and they’re going to be inspired by it and go on to do even better and that’s what I want to do. As for Wladimir, I’ve got the ultimate respect for him in and out of the ring and, if we wants a rematch, I’d have no problem fighting him again.

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Anthony Joshua exclusive: Now I’ll take out the rest…one by one

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