Nigerian born-British hero in the world of boxing, Anthony Joshua has shared his thought on criticisms and how he deals with them it.
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According to the heavyweight champion, criticisms are part of the game and it’s one thing he faces every day of his life. Recall the boxer was heavily criticized for his comments during the Black Lives Matter campaign in his hometown. Lots of social media users used unpredictable words against him.
One other event that got him publicly criticized was his loss to Mexican boxer, Andy Ruiz June 2019. He was brutally beaten by the Mexican and nearly made him unrecognizable. It didn’t take long for him to unleash an attack on Andy Ruiz to regain his titles.
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Speaking with Men’s Health, the unification champion said he pays attention to the criticisms because there is no way he can avoid it but ones they came, one has to find a way to prove their doubters wrong.
Quote:
“I think that it’s hard to ignore it. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t pay attention to any of that, because it’s impossible not to see [the criticism], I started my social media on my own and, even though it has turned into a business page, I still handle a lot of it myself”
“I think that it’s fine to have doubters, as long as you don’t believe what they’re saying the whole time. You have to prove your doubters wrong. When they don’t believe, you should always believe. The doubters aren’t always bad, either. You just have to try to find something positive out of it. They might say, ‘You’re s–t, and you’re going to get knocked out because your hands are too low’ – and I would think, ‘That’s a good indication I’ve got to keep my left hand up.’ I use the doubters as a positive factor, not as a negative one.
“I think it’s all about adapting. Different circumstances require different preparation. It was the same war, but I had learned a lot from the first battle,” said Joshua. “Ruiz isn’t the type of fighter that you go head to head with. For the first fight, I was planning on going in there and trading with him. But there’s an old boxing saying: ‘You don’t hook with a hooker!’ So, what did I do? I went in there and hooked with a hooker and the actual hooker came out on top.
“In the second fight, I went in there and he tried to box with a boxer. And I came out on top. I had to learn what my strengths were and what his weaknesses were, and then I just boxed to those. That’s your basic foundation: never play to someone else’s strengths. In anything you do, everyone has their own strengths. If you play to theirs rather than yours, they are always going to come off better than you in the long run.”