Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua collapsed after losing to Oleksandr Usyk for the second time in August 2022 it was “a good thing”.
The Matchroom promoter says it showed boxing fans the “real side” of Joshua and has allowed the 33-year-old to “rebuild” himself.
However, Hearn admitted that he was “shocked” by AJ’s behavior after the fight, as the British heavyweight had “never done anything like this before”.
Emotions were evidently running high after the fight when Joshua threw two of Usyk’s belts out of the ring and onto the ground.
Joshua then stormed out before returning to the ring to shake Usyk’s hand and launch into a swear-filled tirade, discussing the fight, his career and the crisis in Ukraine.
Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua’s collapse after losing to Oleksandr Usyk for the second time in August 2022 was “a good thing”
The British boxer lost his cool and threw two of Usyk’s belts out of the ring in Saudi Arabia
Joshua also made a bizarre post-fight speech after falling to his third career loss.
AJ also led the sell-out crowd in Jeddah through a chorus of ‘three cheers’ before praising the Ukrainian for producing a title-winning performance in the midst of war.
Many felt Hearn should have stepped in to take Joshua’s microphone, but Matchroom’s promoter has said that would have caused more of a scandal.
Remembering the incident ellie mckayHearn said: ‘I couldn’t believe it, because he’s a really brave guy. You know, I’ve seen him lose before and it kills him because he’s a competitor and he loves to win. But that was different.
‘That was a guy who was struggling. I mean, in the ring it was frustration. But at the press conference, when he started crying, it was like, well, and to me I’m really glad that he did it because it was like he knew he had been struggling, and I knew the pressure was being felt and I knew that he probably wasn’t enjoying it anymore.
‘And sometimes you have to let your emotions out and show your emotions. And people love that. You know, the ring stuff she apologized for. But people love rawness because when you lose it.
You need those moments to overcome them. It is necessary to break to rebuild sometimes. And I think that was good for him and people saw the real side of him, he’s been struggling I think.
Joshua wept during his post-fight press conference as the Brit was overcome with emotion.
Joshua’s promoter Hearn consoled the British heavyweight during the press conference.
“He doesn’t really have much else going on in his life besides boxing. So when that breaks, when you get hit, your whole world falls apart. I just felt like I think I was lost.
He still has that tunnel vision. But I feel like he just decided that, you know what, I’m going to do it my way. Many outlets are not very happy because he said, I won’t do that anymore, I’m sorry.
‘I’ll give you my time: press conferences, you know, Zoom Calls, but I’m not doing days and days of media and sponsors, everything, because it’s wearing me down, it’s consuming me.
Many fans thought Hearn should have stepped in to stop Joshua after he took the microphone and went on an expletive-filled tirade, discussing the fight, his career and the crisis in Ukraine.
However, Hearn said that would have caused more than one scene, as Joshua would have told him to fuck off and continue anyway. He felt the “crudity” just showed how much AJ wanted to win.
Joshua and Jermaine Franklin will go head-to-head on Saturday night at the O2 Arena
Matchroom’s promoter said, “If you do that when he’s in that mood, I mean he’d say ‘get the hell out’ and there’d be a big scene, so I didn’t do it.” Afterward, it’s easy to say that, but I didn’t know what he was going to say.
“Like I’ve never done anything like this before, but all of a sudden, he’s on the mic and I’m kind of shocked. But imagine walking up to him, on camera, saying AJ AJ come come he’d go to hell let me say my part.
‘You live by the sword, you die by the sword, ultimately. People can’t save you all the time, and that’s okay. People saw the rawness and for me what showed me more than anything was how desperate he was to win. Because it was pure frustration.
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