Anthony Joshua

The heavyweight champion has had a lot to say about his rivals.

Anthony Joshua has blasted his two main potential opponents, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, with strong criticism of their résumés.

The 22-0 heavyweight is set to defend his titles against Andy Ruiz Jr on Saturday night in New York and appeared on US TV to promote the occasion.

When AJ arrived, he was instantly met with video footage of recent interviews in which Wilder and Fury were both highly critical of him.

He responded in kind, telling ESPN First Take: “The only other fight he [Fury] has on his record – better than mine or equivalent to mine – is Deontay Wilder.

“I fought Wladimir, he fought Wladimir. I fought other good fighters as well, Parker, Povetkin.

“I think Tyson Fury’s had Wladimir Klitschko and Wilder and that’s it in his whole ten-year career…

“Hopefully I’ll meet him very, very soon in a boxing ring.

“I think they now realise, ‘Hang on, there’s this young kid coming up four years after us and he’s doing it at a quicker pace, we need to step our game up.’

“It comes to a situation where it’s like they wanted to blacklist me, they don’t wanna fight me.”