Anthony Joshua vs Jarrell Miller: Beyond boxing’s pantomime, Joshua fights for prize of American market

On June 1 they fight for real in New York with Joshua’s titles as one prize, but the real reward is the American boxing market and the vast untapped spoils under the heavyweight division

They came close together, held their tongues, held back their hands and just looked long and hard at each other in an exchange that said more than most of the pantomime ugliness in this boxing business.

Anthony Joshua and Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller are not friends, probably never will be friends, and on Monday afternoon they carefully danced through a close encounter at a hotel under the flight path of Heathrow airport and just about avoided hostilities as their tracksuits gently clashed.

On June 1 they fight for real in New York at Madison Square Garden with Joshua’s titles as one prize, but the real prize is the American boxing market and more importantly the vast untapped spoils under the heavyweight division.

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury are chasing the same prize, digging for the same horde of cash, but probably not in any type of tandem. It is a prize that even the wildest of dreamers would not dare put a dollar price on, and a prize so elusive nobody knows for certain the last American heavyweight with the winning ticket.

For a few weeks Joshua, Big Baby, Wilder, Fury and a dozen other characters were lost in the insane underbelly of heavyweight boxing’s politics, all grinding away on deals without very much connection, toiling like men in an isolation ward. Then Joshua agreed to fight Miller, agreed to travel and the silent pieces quickly fell together. Fury and Wilder, now estranged by television alliances, will make clear their intentions soon.

“I’m blessed to be here, happy Joshua agreed to the fight,” said Miller on Monday in London.

“I’m proof that after a cup of tea and a few hamburgers the underdog can succeed. I’m here, I’m ready. It’s balls to the walls. Joshua doesn’t like me.” He is right about Joshua not liking him.

“Look at my hands, look at the state of my hands – that’s not from boxing, that’s from street fighting. That was me, me before I found boxing. Don’t listen to anybody telling you I had it easy,” said Joshua in response to Miller’s suggestion that he had not had to struggle.

Joshua kept his emotions in check after bursting into expletives last week in New York (PA)

It was a different Joshua in London on Monday, anger just below the surface, promising to reconstruct Miller’s face and stop the native New Yorker talking

Joshua was back in London, back to his routine, soon to be back to his strict regime hidden away in Sheffield, doors closed and with a secret revolving system of sparring flesh, hired daily for a beating.

Last week was nasty in New York, the dialogue was edgy and Joshua excelled – don’t be fooled by the smiles. He had a week of microphones in his face as he spread his fighting gospel in the city that was once the very centre of the boxing universe. His days in the heart of the Garden, an old arena with smells from lost decades and dusty pictures on the walls of the greatest sportsmen and entertainers to ever live. “Elvis, Sinatra, Ali – they have all been at the Garden,” said Joshua.

Miller remains convinced that he gained an advantage at the press conferences by getting Joshua to swear, to make predictions and threaten him.

Miller continued his goading of Joshua at the presser (Reuters)

“That’s right, baby, that’s the real Joshua, that’s the one I wanted to see,” chirped Miller each time Joshua promised to end their fight early.

Joshua dismissed Miller’s confidence, laughed at all suggestions of his privileges on both sides of the ropes. “I did everything asked of me as an amateur and a pro – I went to forgotten boxing tournaments and met the best amateurs in the world, in tiny rings when I was just a novice. I never had it easy,” added Joshua.

On Monday they circled, insulted, made promises, but they also had a good look at each other. “I can smell your fear,” Miller said after the face-off.

Joshua rejected the nonsense: “He needs to permanently boost his ego – he has no idea what is going to happen. Not a clue,” he said, taking one last look at a shouting Miller.

“I can’t wait until New York, I can’t wait,” added Joshua. Thankfully, Miller told me the exact same thing.