Anthony Joshua should ignore the circus

By BABA GRUMPY

I admire Anthony Joshua. He is a fine boy, charismatic, charming, appears to be a credit to his mum and family and looks like he is a very good boxer too.

I feel like an hypocrite though as the older me dislikes boxing. As a younger person, I enjoyed reading about and watching tapes of Muhammad Ali. The fights between Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns & Roberto Duran enthralled me. Chuka Momah a notable Nigerian boxing enthusiast made it all the more enjoyable to watch and listen to. After these greats came along Mike Tyson. His brute force and contemptuous dismissal of his opponents was breathtaking and at the same time blood curdling.

As I grew older and became somewhat more religious, I started to take a dislike to boxing. How can we call ourselves civilized when we sit down and enjoy two people tearing lumps out of each other!

According to Cecil Adams (https://www.connectsavannah.com/savannah/the-true-force-of-a-boxers-punch/Content?oid=2133328) a study showed that Frank Bruno’s punches could accelerate his opponent’s head at a rate of 53 g — that is, 53 times the force of gravity.

Can you just imagine what Mike Tyson’s punches did or Anthony Joshua’s punches are doing to opponents’ heads?

Cecil further added, “Punches to the head can cause detached retinas, brain haemorrhage, fractured bones, and permanent neurological disorders”. “Something like a fifth of boxers suffer from dementia pugilistica, the consequence of repeated blows to the skull; it’s characterized by slurred speech and halting gait”. He went on to add that ‘boxing killed at least 650 fighters from 1918 through 1997”. Gun & Knife crime kill considerably less people in the UK annually.

Hypocritically, I am somewhat relaxed as long as it is Anthony Joshua that is dishing out the punches. I can’t see anybody in the horizon that can defeat Anthony Joshua at the moment. Forget the drug addled (FAKE) Tyson Fury. The Klitschko that fought Joshua would have made mince meat of Fury.

To be fair, Anthony Joshua took a few punches against Klitschko. You watch the boxers throwing those punches and you wonder why any of us will joke about our willingness to sign up to a big pay day for a few rounds in the ring with one of them. What is the point of a millionaire in a vegetative state? I am happy to sign up to secure the future of my family but only if I am certain that I will not be brain dead thereafter and that my nearest and dearest will never see me been handed the beating of my life while thousands / millions of people howl primitively in enjoyment.

I can’t imagine how Anthony Joshua’s mum feels every time he steps into the ring. I hope his career at the top of boxing is so successful that he calls it a day quickly and retire to a sport like swimming or rowing or something less scary.

While he continues to box, I hope he is wary of the circus around successful people like him. Every body wants a piece, all his comments are pure gold and if he drops one in the lavatory, there are many people willing to persuade him it is gold plated.

All well and good as long as he keeps winning. Everything will be positive and stuff for the front/cover page of newspapers & magazines. He will continue to be Great Britain’s gift to the world.

Heaven forbid it goes the other way; it will not be the Nigerians revelling in his family roots. Every other story will be about this ‘Nigerian born’ bla bla bla in negative stories upon negative stories.

To be fair, I have heard nothing but positive noises from Joshua in the press.  I hope he keeps it that way. He should never let go of those feet that he appears to have firmly planted on terra firma. It will never be a bad idea to hold some of himself back despite the fact that we live in a ‘look at me world’.

He should beware the groupies and read and then re – read Mike Tyson’s story. Time and time again. Iron Mike was indestructible until his legal problems started.

What started Iron Mike’s downfall can happen to ANY MAN.

The world and especially the British media would love nothing more than tearing down the person they believe they helped build up.

Baba Grumpy works in financial services in the United Kingdom. He blogs mostly about football at http://babagrumpy.blogspot.co.uk. His Twitter handle is @BabaGrumpy