Home Boxing News Lennox Lewis responds to Anthony Joshua calling him a “clown”

Lennox Lewis responds to Anthony Joshua calling him a “clown”

Anthony Joshua and Lennox Lewis. Photo credit: Getty Images

Anthony Joshua has labelled former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis a “clown” on the new Sky Sports show ‘AJ: The Untold Truth’.

Lewis, who claimed the IBF, WBA and WBC heavyweight titles in 1999, questioned whether Joshua was fully prepared when his lost his unified heavyweight championship to Andy Ruiz Jr in New York on June 1 and questioned whether the Briton’s trainer Rob McCracken was the right man for the job.

“Lennox is a clown. I don’t respect Lennox,” Joshua, 29, told Sky Sports.

“Me and Lennox are not the same. My legacy is to sit back and enjoy the younger generation coming up, and not to be involved. Just to appreciate what it takes to get there.

“Lennox isn’t like that.

“Me and Lennox are cut from a different cloth.”

Lewis, 53, who retired after stopping Vitali Klitschko on cuts in 2003, responded to Joshua on Twitter.

“He’s right! We are cut from a different cloth. Undisputed wasn’t something I ‘worried’ about. It was something I went after until it was accomplished!” Lewis posted.

“Disappointed in AJ’s words but I understand that this ‘jealousy’ narrative was only fabricated after I criticised them for Wilder negotiations. All of the sudden I’m a hater.

“Ask who benefits from such a simple-minded narrative? Not AJ. Not me.”

Negotiations for the rematch between Joshua and Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia on December 7 have reached an impasse with the Mexican-American reluctant to fight on foreign soil.

Joshua said he is no longer focused on a potential future with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

“I’m not focusing on that anymore,” he said. “I’d had 22 fights and was talking about being undisputed. What am I going to do after? Go and fight Otto Wallin?

“It was like I was coming to the end of my road already, worrying about undisputed.

“I became heavyweight champion, I unified the division twice, and now my goal is to become two-time heavyweight champion of the world. Once I achieve that, I can look at becoming undisputed champion.

“That undisputed stuff? It was right in front of me but it was one of the biggest curses lingering over my head when I was champion.”