ANTHONY JOSHUA insists sweet dreams in luxury PJs are not making him a soft pillow puncher.
Middleweight legend Marvin Hagler famously said: "It’s tough to get out of bed and run at 5am when you’ve been sleeping in silk pyjamas."
The suggestion is too much money and success takes the hunger and spite out of boxers – especially those that have dragged themselves out of poverty.
Watford’s London 2012 icon has amassed a reported £170million and seemed on the slide since his 2019 loss at the hands of Andy Ruiz Jr.
But – ahead of his all-London rematch with Dillian Whyte on August 12 – the two-time heavyweight champ revealed he keeps it stripped back in the bedroom.
“You see me in the same clobber every time I come to a press conference,” he laughed in his trademark black tracksuit.
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“I take it seriously. I hate losing.
“But, due to the fact I’ve lost, it gives an element of conversation.
"But, what’s beautiful about sports is there’s always a next opportunity to prove yourself.
“There’s a process that I’m following and I just know that, if we look at history, everything will work out for me.
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“I’m not the first athlete to go through it and I’m not going to be the last.
“So, I’ve just got to ride the wave, stay consistent and throw them silk pyjamas in the bin.”
Since that shock stoppage loss to the porky little Mexican, AJ has reinvented himself and his team a few times and he is fixated on becoming a more defensive and technical boxer.
Decade-long mentor Rob McCracken and their Team GB base in Sheffield were ditched, a brief move to Loughborough and spells with unproven trainers Angel Fernandez and Joby Clayton failed.
Respected Robert Garcia only lasted one bout – despite it being the Oleksandr Usyk rematch in which Joshua showed improvements on the original loss.
Now he is based in Dallas, Texas, with Derrick James – a trainer celebrated for his aggressive approach – and still trying to overhaul his style at the late age of 33.
Joshua knows a large section of fight fans are baffled by his recent decisions but he believes there is method to his perceived madness.
He said: “Everyone can write you off, but if you believe in yourself and you continue on your journey, 100 per cent you will overcome. It’s just fact.
“Only you can defeat yourself. Not anyone else.
“If I give up and say: ‘Yeah, I haven’t got it anymore’, then you can say I’m not the same fighter.
"But I just know this is going to work.
“If people look at you like you’re crazy, which people probably think I am now – and ask why am I not being aggressive – but I just know what I’m doing is going to work at the right time.”
Opponent Whyte has had his fair share of cornermen too but his all-action style, sharp tongue and fearsome left hook remain the same.
So AJ – who lost to Whyte in the amateurs but got revenge in a 2015 screamer – knows to be aware of his bark and bite.
He said: “Look how many times he’s moved trainers, he’s moved trainers so many times.
“Maybe he’s not developing at the rate he needs to, or people aren’t teaching him the things he needs to learn and it’s not good enough. He probably knows it himself.
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“That’s probably why he’s moved trainers so much.
“But one thing that he has got is the fight and in America they call it ‘the dog’. He’s got the dog in him.”
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