Froch refuses to apologise to Joshua after AJ calls pundit a ‘clown’

Carl Froch has fired back at Anthony Joshua after the Watford powerhouse labelled him a ‘clown’ for his recent comments. The former super-middleweight world champion has been extremely vocal about the Brit’s supposed decline.

Froch went as far as to suggest that AJ hasn’t been the same since Andy Ruiz Jr ‘took his soul from him’ when he suffered his first professional defeat four years ago. Joshua wasn’t impressed by Froch’s comments and aimed a sly dig at him during the post-press conference following his triumph over Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night.

He said: “These people don’t get me. Not on my wavelength. Not at my level. I don’t use boxing as a platform to rant and rave and disrespect other fighters.

“I won’t talk about my enemies online. I prefer to stay silent. These people want me to talk back but why should I get dragged in by clowns?”

In response to Joshua’s remarks, Froch said on his YouTube channel ‘Froch on Fighting’: “I’d like to address something Joshua said about me and Amir Khan. He’s talking about people talking rubbish about him, I’m being choice in my words there.

“When we talk about him, it can come across as being negative, and I’m not. I want Anthony Joshua to do well, I want him to be back at world level and achieve great things. But he’s got to want to do it.

“I’ve got to be honest in my opinions, I stand by my convictions when I speak about somebody. If I don’t think somebody has improved, like AJ since the Ruiz loss I will be honest about, I don’t think he’s the same since that loss.”

Froch continued by refusing to apologise for his criticisms. “If I sound like I’m being too critical of Anthony Joshua, then I offer no apology, because I’m talking from the heart and I’m being honest,” he continued.

“He’s going to have to put in a great performance, not to just convince me, but to convince himself. It’s nothing personal from my point.”

Joshua defeated Franklin at the O2 Arena, London last night via a wide unanimous decision victory with scorecards of 118-111, 117-111 and 117-111 in his favour. He is now expected to fight two more times this year with Dillian Whyte being the frontrunner to square off with him next.