Anthony Joshua has said that lockdown gave him a chance to “breathe” and stop himself from having a breakdown.

The Watford-born boxer who grew up on the Meriden estate said that although he could not call Covid a “blessing” due to how life-changing the pandemic has been to everyone, he was grateful to have a chance to step back from his extreme training, big fights and his parenting.

Speaking to Watford striker Troy Deeney in his new podcast series ‘Deeney Talks’, Joshua explained that he was on the verge of crashing from over training and over working.

He said: “I never want to say Covid has been a blessing as for 99 per cent of people it has been so life-changing and tough for people.

“But if there is a positive we got out of this negative it’s I feel like I was going to crash.

“There were times going into training camp I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if I am going to come out the other side of this. I am that ill, run-down’.

“We’re spending a lot of time promoting boxing and it’s hard.

“During the pandemic I was like, ‘Breathe. Take a second’ and I just looked around.”

Troy Deeney with Anthony Joshua

Troy Deeney with Anthony Joshua

Joshua added that now he has learnt to step back a bit from work, but still actively share his input when needed.

This tied in with his definition of success, which is having the ability to step back, relax more and the ability to sleep.

Deeney also could not help but bring the conversation back to the nearly finalised Fury v Joshua fight – as he brought up Fury’s claim of ‘drinking 12 pints a day’ while preparing for the contest, which Joshua titled it as“psychological warfare”.

AJ says that he was able to breathe during lockdown

AJ says that he was able to 'breathe' during lockdown

He said: “The man will talk about drinking pints and he’s not interested, but yet he wants to look chiselled, he’s training the hardest he’s ever trained, he’s the skinniest he’s ever been.

“He wants to have a good body, he wants to be well prepared.

“He wants to have a six-pack, that’s why he’s training as hard as he’s training right now, why he looks so chiselled, why he’s in America training.

“It’s just psychological warfare to make me not wanna believe in myself.

“However I understand what this is all about and everything he says, I am everything he wants to be.”

He added: “The reason why he’s saying he’s drinking 12 pints is because he knows he could never do that to fight me, he knows what type of fighter I am.”

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here.