The former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua relocated his base of operations to Loughborough University and has been mingling on campus.
In May, while out for a late walk to calm a restless night, a group of students mocked Joshua from the protection of their dorm windows. The no-nonsense celebrity knocked on their door and addressed the morons who slandered him.
Following a promotional stop at SunSport HQ for their rematch against Oleksandr Usyk on August 20, Anthony revealed: “One night I couldn’t sleep at 3am so I went for a walk.”
“And the reason I had to address them is that their block and my block are next to each other and they cannot get comfortable calling me names from a window. I told them ‘I am here to work, I am not playing games with anyone and they were crossing the wrong person’.”
“There were four or five of them and that’s the only reason I dealt with them in that fashion. I told them that, if they see me on my own again and they want to shout that s*** at me, I will break your jaw.”
“We left it at that and I spoke to them afterwards and we shook hands.”
Anthony Joshua made light of the fact that despite his weekly pizza purchases to the students since his arrival, they now avoid eye contact with him. But he stands by his choice to confront the students in the hopes that it would deter others from performing similar tricks on less powerful targets.
Joshua said: “I showed them so much respect when I first got there. I buy them all 100 pizzas every weekend, I try to do what I can for all people and they are uni students.
“And I feel sorry for any student that might need to walk past that window and feels like they can’t because they are afraid of getting abused or threatened. When people are intoxicated they are not their normal selves, alcohol does not help.”
“But I am a normal person and I have good and bad days. You cannot expect me to be different from anybody else just because of what I have to lose. You could take it all, take everything I have, and I will still be the same man.”
“I don’t act a certain way because I want to keep what I have, I am just who I am. If you cross me, you are crossing the wrong person. I don’t take s*** from anyone, that’s rule No1.”