Anthony Joshua won’t take the knee before title fight with Kubrat Pulev
World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua says he will not take the knee before Saturday’s heavyweight world title fight with Kubrat Pulev.
The Nigerian-born pugilist however says he is working on a more ‘tangible’ plan to campaign for racial equality.
Joshua, who took part in a Black Lives Matter march in June, confirmed he will forego the symbolic gesture at the SSE Arena.
But he has disclosed a project is under way within his team to combine with as-yet unspecified charities to support the push for equality.
He said: “No, I won’t take the knee. I won’t take the knee. I’m trying to do more tangible things. What we’re trying to do is create a union to support British culture.
“That’s important – to showcase people from the Afro-Caribbean community as valuable members of British society. I think that’s more important and that’s what we’re working on at the minute.
“Taking a knee is important – 100 per cent. But for me, personally, I’m doing something different this time around.”
He added: “I’ve employed someone with the team who is actually working on it. It’s a difficult task but no success comes without difficulty. Hopefully it comes to fruition and it’s really only to do positive things in the great British environment.
“There’s sometimes issues with stigma and stereotypes. So it’s to showcase NHS workers, architects, athletes and be positive for everyone in the community.
“We’ve created a deck, a website (that has not yet gone live), and we’re doing foundational things with grassroots charities at the minute.
“What I would like to do is to team up with charities who deal with these things day in and day out and support their causes and champion them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment