'Awkward for no reason' – Anthony Joshua in bizarre exchange with Frank Warren's host at press conference with Deontay Wilder
11/15/2023 03:10 PM
Anthony Joshua is seemingly not a big fan of Frank Warren’s press conference host Dev Sahni.
The pair shared two awkward exchanges during Wednesday’s media event to preview a huge show on December 23, which will see AJ fight Otto Wallin on the same night as Deontay Wilder meets Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia.
Due to his existing relationship with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh (Chairman of Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority), Warren is the lead promoter for the card.
As such, his man Sahni hosted the historic presser which saw Warren finally meet his long-time rival Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, and share a media event with him for the first time.
While the promoters buried their differences and got along just fine, AJ was apparently not so quick to forgive Sahni, who is known as something of a wind-up merchant on social media and has made jokey jibes in the direction of Warren’s rivals in the past.
The first exchange came not long after AJ’s verbal clash with his old rival Jarrell Miller.
He concluded by saying: “F*** Jarrell Miller.”
Sahni attempted to move the press conference on and light-heartedly replied: “I do think you will fight Miller one day.”
To which a stern-faced AJ hit back: “You ain’t my promoter to judge what I’m gonna do in my career.”
Not long later, it was Joshua’s turn to take questions.
Anthony Joshua is seemingly not a big fan of Dev Sahni of Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions…
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) November 15, 2023
[@Queensberry]
As host, Sahni was tasked with probing for interesting answers from all of the fighters on the card.
AJ, however, had no intention of taking his questions.
Sahni began: “Anthony, an iconic night, an historic night, you’re no stranger to these sort of nights, tell us your feelings heading into this one.”
Joshua turned away and said: “Why isn’t Eddie Hearn asking me questions?”
Sahni seemed slightly taken aback, but remained unflustered and invited Hearn to take the lead instead, bringing the tension to a swift end.
Fans reacted by branding the exchanges ‘awkward for no reason’.
