Boxer or brand?
JOHN WIGHT questions Anthony Joshua’s status as the man who single-handedly turned boxing into the mass spectator sport it has become in Britain after his loss to Dubois at Wembley
Anthony Joshua (left) and Daniel Dubois in the IBF World Heavy weight bout at Wembley Stadium
ANTHONY JOSHUA is a case-study in capitalist man. His entire identity has been and remains rooted in the need for validation on a superficial plane. Every loss in the ring is a spur to re-evaluation and reflection on the basis that winning is everything in life.
It is not.
When he appeared at the post-fight presser after his drubbing at the powerful hands of fellow Brit Daniel Dubois last Saturday night at Wembley, he did so armed with his now usual stock of platitudes. These he proceeded to voice as if in a pre-prepared script. It was all “I’m a warrior” this and “We came up short” that. Perhaps the most trite of all was the line, “We pick ourselves back up and we go again.”
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