‘They made him’: Anthony Joshua’s career path slammed by Deontay Wilder

Wilder says he rates Joshua personally but not as a businessman

Anthony Joshua is close to a domestic super-fight with Tyson Fury (PA Wire)

Deontay Wilder has criticised Anthony Joshua’s career and suggested it has been manufactured for him.

Wilder added that while he respects Joshua as a person, in a “business” sense he doesn’t like him.

The American names the London 2012 Olympics - where the Brit was controversially awarded the decision on home soil in the gold-medal bout against Roberto Cammarelle - as just one example of when things were “given” to the 32-year-old.

“Y’all gon’ make me strike up a blunt, man,” Wilder told Brian Custer on The Last Stand Podcast. “The things I’ve been saying before, many things I’ve been saying before. They made Anthony Joshua. They made him.

“This has nothing to do with — ‘oh he don’t like him’ — nah it ain’t that, know what I’m sayin’? I don’t like him in a business sense.

“As a person, Anthony Joshua as a man, as a person, I don’t have nothing that I dislike as a person — but as a businessman, in this business? I don’t like him at all.

“I don’t like the antics of business and how they conduct business because this is a gladiator business. Again, personally, I have nothing against him. Personally, I don’t know him as a man.

“As far as business is concerned, I don’t care nothing for him. But they made him. From the Olympics to the pro rankings. You know that. Business is business. We’re born to do it. Not made it. For me, a lot of people agree they gave him, even with the Olympics they gave him that medal. With these belts, they bought a lot of these belts.

“There’s nothing wrong with that because a lot of people buy certain positions, certain things, whatever. So if you have the money or whatever then go do it. But I think the way they move him and prepared him for certain moments that he was not ready for.”

Joshua recently lost his rematch to Oleksandr Usyk but is in the process of agreeing a fight with compatriot Tyson Fury. Fury became the WBC champion after defeating Wilder in the second of their trilogy of bouts, having seen their first fight - which he was widely thought to have won - end as a draw.