Anthony Joshua delivered a rousing dressing room speech after his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk - and admits he's been living a "nightmare" ever since.
The Brit was comprehensively beaten on the scorecards by Usyk in their first meeting back in September, with the Ukrainian stunning the packed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd of over 65,000. Having entered as a relatively comfortable favourite and holding three of the belts, Joshua's plan had been to get past the red tape of his mandatory challenger before moving on to Tyson Fury.
But that undisputed title challenge was scuppered when Usyk dominated him from bell to bell and won almost every round on route to Joshua's second world heavyweight title defeat. But the Watford native never let the loss overwhelm him, and has now told of how he gave a rallying speech to his team after the loss, insisting that they fight again.
"Right after, in the changing room, I knew I would fight again," Joshua said. "I was telling everyone 'come on, what the f***? We are warriors, we lost a fight but not the war. This is an ongoing battle. It's not over 'til it's over.' That's how I re-motivated my team. Nothing should dishearten you. I have to keep that mentality for the rest of my life even if I stumble privately or publicly."
There have been rumours that Joshua may hang up the gloves following this weekend's fight, particularly if he suffers his first set of consecutive defeats. But he has also recently signed a lucrative broadcast deal worldwide with DAZN, which he will likely want to honour as well as beating Fury to become undisputed champion.
This rematch with Usyk has been delayed on a number of occasions, after the Brit immediately exercised his contractual clause to make it happen. First, Ukraine was plunged into war with Russia, which forced Usyk to remain home and fight on the front lines, and then contractual issues continued to move it from a July date to now the end of August.
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"It has been a nightmare just sitting on this loss for so many months," Joshua explained. "The time-frame does change every day, I have dedicated a lot of my life to a very tough sport. I will do this for as long as I can but I think I'm quite smart at business now, I will be 33 shortly and a lot will come down to how long my body can hang on."
The former unified heavyweight champion has come in for a lot of criticism throughout his career, with Kell Brook recently claiming that if he retires this weekend he will have had a "disappointing career". He has won nine world heavyweight title fights, and unified all but one of the belts, but aside from Wladimir Klitschko and Andy Ruiz Jr has yet to record a particularly big victory.
"I try not to focus on criticism," he continued. "There are a lot of positive vibes out there as well, especially inside the four walls of my home and the environment I shape around me. Should I shape that environment around having had a couple of defeats?
"Records matter now because people forget quickly these days but I study the win-loss records of the famous endlessly - and boxers who consistently fight the best rarely go undefeated through their career. Annoying as it is, I know I have to cope with losing, I fight the best."
