Usyk v Joshua: Boxing world reacts to AJ’s ‘out of character’ outburst after losing rematch

Professional boxer Frazer Clarke said Joshua’s outburst was “out of character” for him, telling Sky Sports: “As a gym friend and a friend in general, for anyone offended in general by what happened, I think I can apologise on his behalf for the outburst.

“His team might be mad at me for saying this, but I feel he was hung out to dry there. Somebody should have saved him from himself.

“It’s words, but in the true reflection of boxing, that was Usyk’s time to celebrate that victory, and he didn’t get to do it straight away, and I don’t think that was right.

“Anthony is a great person and has done a lot for a lot of people, a lot for me, but I feel like he had a bit of a bad one there, and it was out of character.”

He added: “Someone should have jumped in there. Someone should have stopped him and saved him from himself. It was only words, but it was the wrong time.”

Meanwhile, former middleweight champion Carl Froch defended Joshua, saying: “He didn’t say anything that would have offended anybody too much.

“He was just trying to speak off the cuff. He put his heart on his sleeve and hopefully didn’t offend anybody, but he did steal Usyk’s moment, and it was a bit strange.

“I think he was so emotionally built up to win that fight, the way in which he lost… I didn’t like the way the belts got thrown. It was a great boxing match, I thought it was a great performance.”

Addressing the speech in the post-match news conference alongside promoter Eddie Hearn, Joshua said: “When you try and do things from your heart, not everyone’s going to always understand.

“It was just from the heart, I knew I was mad at myself… and I thought ‘I’ve gotta get out of here’.

“Then I realised – this is sport.

“I’m a hustler, so I try and put things together… but it comes at a cost, and it’ll never break me, and it takes real strength not to break me, and tonight there’s a little crack in the armour because I took a loss.

“Let’s not forget about the champ… credit to him.”