Former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew has slammed talkSPORT host Simon Jordan for his rant about Anthony Joshua following his loss to Oleksandr Usyk last weekend.
Joshua was beaten by the Ukrainian for a second time in a row over the weekend, and proceeded to storm out of the ring before taking the microphone and making an outlandish speech. The former two-time world heavyweight champion later apologised and explained he let his emotions get the best of him, but Jordan was unimpressed and let loose on Joshua during an on-air rant.
He questioned the narrative that Joshua has been a particularly influential figure in British boxing who has brought back massive events. He also argued that he wanted an unnecessary deal of reverence, as opposed to just the respect of the public.
“I think it was a combination of exasperation meeting entitlement," Jordan said during an lengthy rant to co-host Jim White and guest host Graeme Souness. “And by that I mean he’s exasperated and frustrated by the fact he could not better this guy - ultimately he has a sense of entitlement because he’s been led to believe that he’s something that he’s not.
“I keep hearing this narrative that Anthony Joshua rebuilt British boxing and Anthony Joshua is responsible for the increase of British boxing. Well I’m sorry, but they put 80,000 fight fans in [Wembley] for Carl Froch vs George Groves before Anthony Joshua was ever doing stadium fights, so that’s nonsense and diminishes other fighters."
Bellew took offence to Jordan's comments, branding the radio host an "absolute clown" and insisting that he doesn't understand the situation. Jordan had also claimed that the scorecard that gave Joshua a 115-113 win was a plot to help build Joshua's credibility on DAZN after signing a new broadcast deal, which Bellew rubbished as a wacky conspiracy theory.
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“Let’s just get it straight, judges have no care in the world for DAZN,” Bellew insisted after dismissing his take on Joshua's drawing power. “Judges only care about being paid and scoring fights. That’s the top and bottom of it. So, that’s another fact he got wrong. He also misses the fact that when Anthony Joshua first loses that fight and Oleksandr Usyk gets that Ukraine flag and puts it on his back, Anthony Joshua holds half that flag and holds it in the air – this is before the decision came in.
“Tell him to have a look at the video again and see what he’s doing because he’s obviously got that massively wrong. He’s just an absolute prat at times.”
