World boxing heavyweight unified champion, Anthony Joshua, has responded to taunts from his US challenger, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, that he was a “posh” champion.
Joshua, who holds the WBA, IBF and WBO titles, said he will “strip him of his soul” when he defends his world heavyweight titles at Madison Square Garden in the challenger’s home city of New York, USA on June 1.
It will be the first time British boxer Joshua will fight in the United States.
It will be a clash between two unbeaten boxers, with Joshua boasting a record of 21 knockouts in 22 wins compared to Miller’s mark of 23-0-1, with 20 KOs.
The pair had already held a testy press conference in New York last week, with Miller proclaiming Joshua a “fraud” and “a pussy”.
Monday’s event was relatively restrained until Miller suggested London’s Joshua had had things “easy”.
“I’ve still got 10 years left in the sport,” Joshua said. “I don’t know anything else. I like to knock people out and beat people up.”
Former Olympic champion Joshua has largely avoided the kind of ‘trash talk’ common in the promotion of many boxing bouts but he appeared riled Monday, particularly when Miller said Tyson Fury was now the talk of the British heavyweight scene.
Miller, making mock snoring noises during Joshua’s opening remarks, said:
“The facial can’t fight for him, the fans can’t fight for him, he’s not the popular one, all I here is Tyson Fury now — he (Joshua) is a sucker.”
But Joshua said:
“I’m going to strip him of his soul in that ring. I’m going to reconstruct his face and his body on June 1.”
The 29-year-old Joshua last fought in September at Wembley, stopping Russia’s Alexander Povetkin in seven rounds.
