It was shortly before 4am local time that Anthony Joshua met the crowd that had been waiting for him. Alongside his promoter, Eddie Hearn, the 32-year-old strode into the press conference room located at the back of the King Abdullah Sports City media centre and took a seat behind the podium. He and Hearn then started taking questions and everything was proceeding as normal, until someone asked Joshua if he was proud of the performance he had delivered in defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
“Am I proud of myself?” Joshua said. “It’s hard to say if I’m proud of myself. I’m upset. Really, deep down in my heart …” Everyone waited for him to finish his answer, but he had no more words. Only emotion. Joshua leant forward, covered his eyes and, quite clearly, was in tears.
