Sports promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn gave Piers Morgan their Uncensored views on fighter Anthony Joshua.
During an exclusive clip – released ahead of the full interview airing on Piers Morgan Uncensored’s YouTube channel at 8pm – Eddie admits he felt Joshua’s “best days may be behind him” after his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk. But he praised the Brit for an incredible comeback and labelled him “unbeatable” in his quest to beat Tyson Fury and predicting a knockout in their much-anticipated clash.
Piers asks the pair: “A year ago, six months ago Anthony Joshua, he couldn’t sell a bus ticket… He looked like he was done and then two things happened. Tyson fights Ngannou in Saudi Arabia and he really struggles, many people think he may actually have lost the fight against this UFC champion. And then your boy gets into the ring with him, very recently, and absolutely haymakers him with a knockout punch for the ages. And I would argue that in that moment, if you were to quantify what that one punch may have done to the valuation of your fighter Anthony Joshua and of that fight against Fury, was it the hundred million dollar punch?”
Eddie replies: “It is the fight that made him, once again, the hottest commodity in boxing. And we are very fickle as a sports community of ‘he’s finished’. And to be fair, the one incredible thing about AJ, when he lost to Oleksandr Usyk in the second fight and he broke down in the press conference in tears, I felt he was a long, long way back.”
Piers says: “Did you feel he was done then?”
“I felt, not done, but I felt like his best days may be behind him. And this is the one and most important thing, in life – sport, business, whatever it is, consistency. If you are consistent and you work as hard as you can, and you have ability. You are unbeatable. And the one thing that he’s always done, throughout his whole career, and even since that moment with Oleksandr Usyk is stay consistent. Keep working, keep searching for the answers and if the ability is still there, you will get back,” Eddie says.
He concludes: “In fact, the rise of AJ since that moment – where I have never seen him cry before and to do it in public is very unlike him, and you saw mentally where he was at in the ring afterwards. The comeback, mentally, the comeback has been incredible. To a point now, where I feel he is unbeatable in the ring. To a point where…”
PM: “Do you think he will beat Tyson Fury?”
EH: ”Every day. I have always thought he would beat Tyson Fury, but right now I have absolutely no doubt he knocks Tyson Fury out.”
To watch the full debate, go to the Piers Morgan Uncensored channel on YouTube – www.youtube.com/