Even as an American, I used to be a big fan of Anthony Joshua when he came up. I thought he had a lot of skill and could be very special. He still is a really good fighter after his loss to Ruiz and losses to Usyk, but I have to say I’m not as much of a fan anymore. Him losing his mind trying to storm out of the ring after the decision then throwing the belts out really made me lose a lot of respect for him. Hopefully he can figure it out for himself and try to challenge for a belt in the future.
He will probably regret it the next day. Read some of the neuroscientific literature on free will, or Sam Harris’s book ‘Free Will’. Another great book written by a well known neuroscientist is ‘We are our brains’. I have found that having a greater insight into the workings of the brain has made me more sympathetic. In essence, we are all victims of our own biology. Hopefully he will be less likely to do it again when he acknowledges his feelings the next day and reflects on how people have responded to his actions.
He is a human. We cannot expect anyone to be perfect (i.e. act as we wish all of the time). We are exactly what we should be if everything that happened prior to our actions happened. In other words, decisions appear in our consciousness - and are the product of complex chains of causal events in the brain - influenced by the environment. I think the best we can do is promote the virtue of learning from what we do - influencing each others’ brains to keep reflecting.
“You can do what you decide to do - but you cannot decide what you will decide to do”. (Harris, 2012).
“How can we be ‘free’ as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are totally unaware?” (Harris, 2012).
My point is, I don’t think people are ‘separate’ form their brains (I just don’t think the evidence points toward that). So let’s help each other improve, and be sympathetic and understanding when we don’t always achieve expectations. Explore influences we aren’t consciously aware of. The brain is complex. Replace blame with rehabilitation and understanding.
AJ is a human. Just like all of us.
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It was very cringy and at the time I was like WTF. But hey he had just gone 12 and his head was probably all over the place. If anything it’s good to see the human in him.
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