That’s life-changing money for average schmucks like you and I, but “AJ” is prepared to leave it all on the table if friend and longtime promoter, Eddie Hearn, tells him to “pull the plug.” What horrible happenstance could lead Joshua to make such a drastic (and costly) decision?
“My loyalty is with Eddie, so whatever he wants to do,” Joshua told talkSPORT Boxing. “If he wants to pull the plug, I’ll be right there tugging that plug with him.”
“Getting this fight over to the U.K. is something that we fought for,” Joshua added. “I went through this situation where there’s contract negotiations and things where higher powers are upset with me and sending me personal messages. I’m a G, if you want to go to war, but it’s like, corporate level of messages where people aren’t happy. I just want them to know that I fought for the British boxing and I wanted to bring some respect over to this side of the pond because I said that when I first fought for the world title, they wanted me to go to America.”
“I took less money and I paid the champion more money to bring it to the United Kingdom, and I’ve said it in interviews before that I think that people should put more respect upon British fighters because we are fighters that need respect or fighters to be reckoned with, so that’s all I can ask for,” Joshua said. “Just remember me as someone who fought for British boxing and tried to bring the respect back here. That’s it, no more. I don’t want nothing more, I don’t expect nothing more, and I’m happy with that.”
Happy enough to pass on $100 million? That remains to be seen.