THE SHOCK:
Fielding will
later get stick
for appearing
to smile when
on the canvashttp://www.boxingnewsonline.net JULY 25, 2019 lBOXING NEWSl 31
throw you under the bus. Even though you’re more
upset than them. They’ll even try and get on top of
you by taking things away from you. At the same time
talk s**t about you. I’ve seen it happen to me.”
That takes a toll. Defeat hurts acutely and that is a
bad state for a boxer to be in. Smarting from losing
his unified super-lightweight titles to Lamont Peterson
in 2011, Khan went straight into a showdown with
Danny Garcia trying to make a statement. “What
happens is that you make mistakes and, look,
I’ve seen it myself. When you you go into
a fight with your emotions high you make
mistakes automatically. You want to prove a
point. For example,
when I fought Garcia,
when I fought the
guys who I fought
where emotionally
I’ve gone in there
and I’ve tried to do
a number and fight
with my heart, that’s
where you get hurt,”
Khan explained.
Thinking of Anthony Joshua, Amir says, “He must be
in bits. He must be definitely in bits.”
Khan said, “I mean mentally you are upset. It
kills you. You might not show that. You might be so
straight-faced and strong emotionally that you might
not show it but ... when you’ve lost all them titles it’s
like you’ve lost your babies.”
Charlie Edwards can empathise with Joshua.
They’ve known each other for years, won the ABAs
together as amateurs, roomed together when on theGB squad. Edwards became a world champion as a
professional too but his first attempt at a world title,
back in 2016, ended in an ignominious defeat.
After only eight pro fights Edwards challenged John
Riel Casimero for the IBF flyweight title at the O2
Arena in London. Casimero hammered the Croydon
man, consigning him to a painful 10-round stoppage
loss. “I took some real punishment in there. I watch
the fight back and I can’t even remember being in it, it
was all a blur. Just fighting on instinct, fighting
for my life. I was concussed,” Charlie tells
Boxing News. “For a week after I didn’t feel the
same. I felt weird. I felt like I had smoke round
my head.
“This game is no
joke. It’s your life on
the line every time
you step into that
ring.”
Naturally Edwards
had believed in
himself, talked up
his chances and, as
the chief support
to Gennady Golovkin vs Kell Brook, the world was
watching this fight. Therefore the result for him was
a humiliation. “I felt I embarrassed myself, although
I never. I put in a very good account for myself from
everyone else’s point of view at the time, no one
expected me to win. But I just felt I embarrassed
myself, embarrassed everyone. I didn’t want to show
my face around in public,” he said. “I really struggled
with it.”
Despite his amateur experience he points out, ➤ANTHONY JOSHUA MUST
BE IN BITS. MENTALLY,
DEFEAT LIKE THAT KILLS
YOU. YOU MIGHT NOT
SHOW THAT BUT IT DOES”