Anthony Joshua jokes he put people "in coffins" during fights in troubled youth

08 November 2023 , 10:05

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Anthony Joshua jokes he put people "in coffins" during fights in troubled youth

Anthony Joshua joked that he was putting people in coffins instead of hospitals during street fights in his younger days.

Former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua opened up about his youth in an exclusive interview with Louis Theroux for a new BBC docuseries. The presenter pointed out several scars on Joshua's knuckles, but 'AJ' said most of them came from street fights rather than his professional bouts.

“Funny enough, I’m not a troublesome person. I’ll be honest with you, far from troublesome but I used to get into fights a lot. My skin doesn't heal too well. I was going to get chicken one evening and I ended up fighting six guys on my own," Joshua said before Theorux asked: "Were you putting people in hospital do you think?" Joshua then jokingly replied: "No no no, in a coffin."

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'AJ' picked up consecutive wins against Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius this year and was expected to fight again next month, but his return won't take place until early next year. Joshua admitted that he didn't like getting in street fights and would always try to deescalate an altercation if possible.

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"I got in a few street fights, of course. The thing with me is that I always try to diffuse a situation. I make friends. I could probably have a fight with you and then we’d end up going for a drink after. I am not someone who backs down easy. You push me to the limit and you want to go that way, that’s fine with me," he told GQ in 2017.

"The problem then is, you’ll face the worst of me. But I will always try and diffuse a situation first – find out what the issue is before I start to resort to anything physical. I can do it caveman-style, but we are civilised people now and we should be able to talk and resolve our differences. If you give me no choice, though, I can handle that."

Joshua was warned by Oleksandr Usyk that he dodged a bullet by arguing with some of his teammates after their rematch last August. "That would be a bare-knuckle fight that I don't recommend him to do because most of them are horrible street fighters," Usyk said after their fight.

Harry Davies