Anthony Joshua told six things as Eddie Hearn lifts lid on hour-long call after Usyk loss

Eddie Hearn had an hour-long phone call with Anthony Joshua following his second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday. During their conversation, AJ’s promoter consolidated his fighter by listing off his finest qualities and achievements.

Hearn told the Watford powerhouse that ‘he’s smart, has changed the sport, is a two-time world champion, has filled stadiums, inspired people, and earnt the respect he deserves from his last performance’. During a stirring recollection of the chat, Hearn told the DAZN Boxing Show that Joshua should be proud of all he has achieved.

“I just finished 57-minutes with ‘AJ’ on the phone, I said to him ‘AJ’ you’re so smart. You’ve got your own mind and eyes, look at what you’ve done. Go back to that 17 or 18-year-old kid that really didn’t even have a future. You’ve changed the sport in this country, maybe even globally. You’re a two-time world heavyweight champion.

“You’ve filled stadiums around the world. You’ve filled stadiums around the world and inspired people. Come on, you couldn’t have been there at that age thinking you were going to achieve this in your life. You’ve got to fall in love with the sport, he loves boxing. I also said to him remember one thing, you did well on Saturday. You boxed well, those people he talked about getting respect from, they respect him for that performance.”

In defence of the former Olympic gold-medallist, Hearn stated during the same interview: “I mean what he said, it wasn’t horrendous, it wasn’t disrespectful, it was fuddled and muddled but he was a very emotional guy.

“What he was trying to do was give Usyk the respect before he left the ring. Before this even happened, he went over to the ring with the referee, he held Usyk’s hand up, he held up the Ukrainian flag behind Oleksandr Usyk. He actually went on his knees after the fight and bowed down to the performance of Oleksandr Usyk but he was a kid that was extremely devastated to lose.”