Heavyweight boxing champion Anthony ‘AJ’ Joshua told people at a crowded Black Lives Matter protest in Watford, England, that “gang life is finished” as “there’s too much cameras, too much intelligence” nowadays.
The boxer, full name Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua, was praised by mainstream media outlets such as the BBC and Sky for the “passionate” and “powerful” address to the open-air meeting, which was attended by local politicians — although he seemingly did not write it himself, and passages suggesting black people should only patronise black-owned businesses have drawn some criticism on social media.
Wearing a single black leather glove, the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO champion read out a letter to the closely-packed gathering which had been written by a friend who could not attend.
“Today we join many thousands of protesters across the UK and many hundreds of thousands across the globe. We stand united against a virus that has been instrumental in taking lives; lives of the young, old, rich, and even poor,” he read.
“A virus that is not apologetic; a virus that has spread across all sectors of our communities — sports, education, churches, entertainment, the media, and even the government — not just in the UK, but across the world. The virus has been declared a pandemic. It is out of control. And I’m not actually talking about Covid-19. The virus I’m referring to is called racism,” he added, in a twist which will have surprised few given the gathering’s evident disregard for coronavirus lockdown regulations.
Joshua received praise for later sections of his friend’s speech condemning looting and rioting.
“We have to engage with the youth.. and put an end to black youth gang culture,” he read from the letter — then cut in with his own, somewhat different thoughts.
“I’m going to be real with you about gang culture… It is done, trust me. Unless you want to be sitting in jail, spending years upon years of your only life that you have thinking about ‘Yeah, they can lock the locks but they can’t stop the clocks’ — that’s all done because there’s too much cameras, too much intelligence. All the OGs that I know are telling me, ‘bro, it’s finished, it’s finished, gang life is finished’,” he explained.
The boxer is known to have been charged for multiple offences including actual bodily harm and drug possession with intent to supply in the 2000s, and to have spent some time in prison on remand — although he did tell the BLM meeting he was “not promoting no gangster business” and has taken his own “street knowledge” and “put it into the corporate world”.
Joshua was hailed as the future of boxing’s heavyweight division after he defeated 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko for the vacant WBA (Super) and IBO heavyweight belts in 2017, having previously won Olympic gold as an amateur fighter.
His star faded somewhat after he was knocked out by little-heralded underdog Andy Ruiz Jr two years later, however, with British-Irish boxer Tyson Fury — who had ended Klitschko’s championship reign before Joshua competed with him — and American boxer Deontay Wilder cementing themselves at the top of the division over two dramatic bouts which saw Fury come out the victor.
Joshua did outpoint Ruiz to reclaim his belts in a bout in Saudi Arabia in late 2019, however, with many hoping he will face off with Fury in a title unification bout at some point in the future.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article reported Mr Joshua said he would be “down to riot” but that such behaviour was undesirable due to the negative consequences. Given he may have said he was “down to ride” and the broader context of his remarks, Breitbart News has proactively changed the text and headline. The original version of this article displayed and linked to the full audio and video of Mr Joshua’s address.
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