Anthony Joshua desperate to make Joseph Parker pay for ‘king of steroids’ jibe

Anthony Joshua has admitted Joseph Parker got under his skin with jibes about his supposed glass jaw and being “the king of steroids” – but said he will come in faster and lighter and make the New Zealander pay when they fight in March.

Joshua, who puts his WBA, IBF and IBO belts on the line against Parker, wants to end the year as undisputed heavyweight champion – first by taking the New Zealander’s WBO belt and then by defeating the WBC champion, Deontay Wilder, in what he hopes will be a compelling summer unification fight at Wembley Stadium. He warned his rivals he has improved significantly after revamping his training following his below-par showing against Carlos Takam in October.

“I am leaps and bounds ahead compared to the Klitschko and Takam fights,” said Joshua, who pointed out his weight was already down to 17st 8lb, eight pounds lighter than against Takam. “I’m watching what I eat, running further and doing more than I did last year. Last week I did 20 rounds in the gym which I wasn’t even doing for Klitschko, and we’re still 11 weeks to the Parker fight.

“I think speed is in power,” he added. “When you’re heavy and you try to club these durable fighters, it’s not that simple just to go ‘boom’. Just because I’m the most muscly man, it doesn’t mean I can just hit someone and knock them out. It’s the shot that you don’t see coming that knocks you out. When I’m quicker – bang, bang, bang – that’s when I can knock my opponents down a lot easier.”

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The 28-year-old had sharp words for Parker and his entourage, who he said had lied about him being put down in the gym and using performance-enhancing drugs to hype the fight and annoy him. “Three times it’s happened,” he said. “If you want to use it as a PR stunt carry on using it as a PR stunt, but let’s just talk about facts if you want to talk real. It gets under my skin. If he’s better than me, quicker than me, tougher than me, it will take a lot to put me away because I won’t stop coming.”

Joshua pointed out he was not only tested regularly by UK Anti-Doping but also paid extra to be on the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association testing programme before fights. “I give them a slot and they can turn up anywhere, if I’m on holiday, at a hotel, at a club,” he said. “I just text them and say I’m going to be here. You have to let them know. I normally give them the time when I’m going to be in the gym training for the opportunity.”

On one occasion the drug testers even accompanied him to Nando’s in Sheffield. “You have to go through the piss test before they take your blood,” Joshua explained. “So I said: ‘Look, I haven’t eaten, I’m not going to sit here for an hour.’ So they have to follow me, I got in my car. We went to eat at Nando's. They were patient. Then they followed me home.”

Meanwhile Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has told Wilder he must be realistic if he wants a unification fight against Joshua. “We were up for fighting Wilder now,” he said. “But it’s very easy to kill a fight. And you kill a fight by coming out with an unrealistic remark like: ‘I won’t take one per cent less than 50-50 or there’s no fight.’ We look at that and say: ‘Mate go away, don’t waste our time.’ We would love Wilder to be next but he’s got delusions of grandeur.”

Before that Joshua knows he will have to get past Parker – who clearly believes he can spring a huge upset. “I played rugby union when I was at school for three years as a lock, as you can probably tell by my cauliflower ear,” Parker said. “I had thoughts of turning professional at rugby but my dad always told me to focus on one sport so I chose boxing. And it was the best decision ever.”

However, Joshua intends to make him eat those words – and plenty of others – on 31 March.