For quite some time now, Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has said, more than once, how heavyweight great and fellow Brit Lennox Lewis has been far too critical of his star fighter, Anthony Joshua. And now, in an interview on ‘AJ: The Untold Truth,’ Joshua has verbally attacked Lewis. Calling the all-time great a “clown,” a fighter he “doesn’t respect,” Joshua has not liked Lewis’ criticism of himself or of his trainer Rob McCracken (Lewis suggesting not too long after Joshua’s loss to Andy Ruiz that he may need a new trainer).
“Lennox is a clown,” Joshua said firmly. “I don’t respect Lennox. Me and Lennox aren’t the same. My legacy is to sit back and enjoy the younger generation coming up, and not to really be involved, just appreciate what it takes to get there. Lennox isn’t like that. Me and Lennox are cut from a different cloth.”
Lewis has responded via social media, saying he is “disappointed” with Joshua’s comments. Lewis wrote how he is being called a “hater” due to his justifiable criticism of Joshua not doing enough to make the big Deontay Wilder fight before his shock loss to Ruiz, with Lennox adding how he will not “be pitted against AJ.”
It’s a shame Lewis and Joshua, two of the biggest names in British boxing, can’t get along, but it seems they are indeed entirely different people with different personalities. Lewis says he did all he could to make good on his goal of becoming undisputed heavyweight king, and his stated belief that Joshua has not done the same has not gone down well at all with Joshua or with Hearn.
Has Lewis been too critical of Joshua in the past, or has he merely spoke words of truth? Certainly, it seems out of character for Joshua to refer to Lennox, one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history, as a clown. Maybe AJ is feeling the pressure ahead of his must-win return fight with Ruiz.
‘AJ: The Untold Truth’ is on Sky Sports Demand tonight at 6pm.
