THE EMERGENCY SERVICE
THESE, in case you somehow happened to miss them, were just some of the sounds emanating from Anthony Joshua’s corner during the 12 rounds he shared with Oleksandr Usyk in London on September 25: “Brilliant, AJ… brilliant, AJ… brilliant, AJ…” They were heard, these sounds, when Joshua either landed a punch, missed a punch, was hit by a punch, or was hurt by a punch. They were issued by a voice belonging not to Robert McCracken, Joshua’s long-time head coach, but a voice rarely heard in other corners, on other nights. They were as prominent in the last round as they were in the first. Round one: “Brilliant, AJ.” Round 12: “Brilliant, AJ.”
Such encouragement would have been fine, or at least less conspicuous, had the rallying cry soundtracked a dominant Anthony Joshua victory. Yet the constant affirmation being delivered to Joshua that night appeared wholly out of place, coming as it did during a fight in which the heavyweight was soundly outboxed and seemed at no point to be in the ascendency, much less ‘brilliant’. Which is to say, to hear someone assert Joshua’s brilliance throughout – a decisive loss, remember – was akin to hearing someone start yelling congratulations and applauding at a funeral. It was, at best, misguided and confusing, while, at worst, an indictment, perhaps, of Joshua’s need to be fed mistruths when reality strikes.
Either way, six weeks on and Joshua, like so many before him, finds himself now taste-testing the gyms of America in search of different voices and different faces to see him through a potential second fight against Usyk in 2022. Whether or not architect of so many great Joshua nights both as an amateur and a pro, one thing seems clear: to achieve a different result, Joshua understands the importance of being armed with fresh ideas.
