Anthony Joshua doubled down on his controversial “kill” comments to Jake Paul after being challenged on the comments at a news conference in Miami on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The remarks were first made on Tuesday when Joshua was asked whether he would hold back against Paul, with Joshua saying “if I can kill you, I’ll kill”.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s fight against YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul has attracted criticism over safety concerns and the size difference between the fighters.<\/p>\n
And former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury called Joshua a “classless loser” for the “kill” comments.<\/p>\n
But Joshua, 36, said: “It’s my job, we fight. We have a licence to kill.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure many people don’t understand it but this is what my job is. I just enjoy what I do.<\/p>\n
“Whatever happens, happens – as long as my hand is raised, that’s what’s important, respectfully.<\/p>\n
“That’s just what the mentality we have to have as fighters. I don’t know if other fighters think that way. Maybe they’re a bit more tame.<\/p>\n
“The way my mind works. When you’re in the ring, it’s a dangerous thing. Anything can happen.<\/p>\n
“You hope your opponent leaves the ring safely, but if they don’t, you still have to go to bed knowing you just did your job. It wasn’t personal.”<\/p>\n
Paul, who is a huge underdog in the heavyweight contest as a natural cruiserweight, was no less incendiary in response.<\/p>\n
“This is a modern day gladiator sport,” Paul said.<\/p>\n
“I’m ready. I want his hardest punches. I want there to be no excuses when it’s all said and done. Let’s kill each other.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua doubled down on his controversial “kill” comments to Jake Paul after being challenged on the comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-322393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}