Anthony Joshua proved the critics wrong by bouncing back from a heavyweight upset

Joshua is very much the boss of what might be called AJ Incorporated and he recognised that his company was fraying a little at the edges after that potentially catastrophic loss on the New York Stock Exchange.

While stopping short of actually reading the riot act to his personal staff as well as his management, marketing and promotional partners, Joshua issued warnings that some standards were slipping.

‘It wasn’t so much that we were complacent,’ says the golden Olympian who is now Britain’s two-time world heavyweight champion.

‘Just that in the disappointment we had lost some attention to detail and the detail is important. We had to find our motivation again.’

Joshua believes he ‘lost attention to detail’ before his defeat by Andy Ruiz Jr in New York

The 30-year-old Joshua has been determined throughout his career to take control of what he terms ‘the sport I love as my business.’

He adds: ‘There is so much stuff to deal with that it can be a bit overwhelming but I never wanted to be owned by anyone else. Now, when we needed to refocus, we did. By the time we went into training camp and then came to Saudi Arabia we were sharp again.’

All of which was as critical to his redemption victory as the party-animal condition in which Ruiz presented himself for duty.

The Briton has revealed he underwent surgery after the loss at Madison Square Garden

The process entailed Joshua undergoing an operation to cure the chronic fatigue which so debilitated him in the first fight with Ruiz.

He delayed confirming suspicions that something was wrong in New York until after winning the rematch, so as not to be thought making excuses nor to rain on the parade of the portly Mexican-American he regards as ‘a good man.’

The exact nature of the surgical procedure has not been revealed but it probably had to do with breathing difficulties. Its success leads Joshua, as he heads for home with his reclaimed WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts, to say: ‘With all my energy back, I’ve never felt more comfortable in the ring than I did the other night.’

As well as at ease with his team again, even though some feel he might have been better briefed to field questions about taking his fight of world-wide interest to a country with a controversial human rights record.

Joshua batted away condescending questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record

‘The total priority was becoming world champion again,’ says Joshua.

‘I was so buried in that I didn’t give much attention to anything else.’ As a result there were sly smirks at his responses but he says of the interviewers: ‘I felt they wanted to try to make fun of me instead of getting my answers.’

It did not go unnoticed that two personnel with British television networks were giggling and whispering behind his back while he was choosing his post-fight words slowly and carefully so as not to offend his Saudi hosts.

Shades of Justin Trudeau caught on camera joking about Donald Trump to Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron at the NATO summit in London, in response to which the United States president publicly lambasted Canada’s childish prime minister.

For his part Joshua is not usually one to hold a grudge but in this case there may be a subtler price to pay down the road to world title defences and super-fights against Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.

Courteous, Joshua is. Stupid, he is not.

Promoter Eddie Hearn (right) defended Joshua during press conferences in Saudi Arabia

Another journalist was taken to task by promoter Eddie Hearn for a personalised slant against his marquee fighter’s diplomatic stance on the political situation.

It is characteristic of Joshua to defuse awkward moments by throwing back his head in laughter but this time the guffaws sounded more accusatory than amused.

While he is accepting of criticism, Joshua is disappointed by what he perceives to be insults. Just as he expects loyalty from those who earn a living from his willingness to put himself in mortal danger in the ring to keep AJ Incorporated in business.

Which it most certainly is, having picked up the $85 million cheque on Saturday night which brought its earnings for the two Ruiz fights to one hundred million.

Stupid? Anthony Joshua, unified world heavyweight champion, is nobody’s fool.