Carl Froch felt that Joshua deserved praise after a hard-fought 12 rounds, but had then taken the spotlight from Usyk.
“He got the mic, he stole Usyk’s moment but let’s not go too mad. He didn’t say anything that would have offended anybody too much,” said Froch.
“He was just trying to speak off the cuff. He put his heart on his sleeve but he did steal Usyk’s moment and it was a bit strange.
“I didn’t like the way the belts got thrown. It was a great boxing match, I thought it was a great performance. But that highlights his passion – how much it meant to him and how much he wanted it.”
Clarke: ‘Joshua should have been saved from himself’
Frazer Clarke, a close friend of Joshua, felt that the British heavyweight star should have been given time to retain his composure and believes his team should have done more to look after him, given the emotion of the moment.
“As a gym friend and a friend in general, for anyone that is offended by what happened, I think I can just apologise on his behalf for the outburst,” Clarke told Sky Sports.
“He might be mad at me for saying this and the whole team might be mad at me for saying this, but I feel like he was left out to dry by the team. I feel like someone should have saved him.
“It’s words but in the true reflection of boxing, that was Oleksandr Usyk’s time to celebrate that victory and he didn’t get to do it straight away. I just don’t think that was right but once again, Anthony is a great person, he does a lot for a lot of people, he’s done a lot for me, but I feel like he had a bit of a bad one there and it was out of character. There were no excuses, that was Oleksandr Usyk’s time.
“To the people around him, where were you? Someone should have jumped in there. Someone should have stopped him and saved him from himself. It was only words, but it was the wrong time.”
