A solid twelve months, which saw the current heavyweight king unify the world titles and make a mandatory defense against Carlos Takam, failed to see ‘AJ’ end the year with the gong.
Instead, that honor went to Olympic legend Mo Farah who scooped the trophy in his final year in track competition.
The five-time Games gold medallist plans to concentrate on the marathon for the considerable future and was shocked to beat a stellar line-up of athletes.
Joshua, for his part, failed even to make the top three. World SuperBike star Johnny Rea came second. Paralympic sprinter Johnny Peacock took third.
Despite some disruption when named the winner as the live feed died, Farah – who couldn’t make it for family reasons – was shocked.
“It’s amazing. I can’t stop staring at the trophy,” he stated.
“I came out tonight, thinking maybe the top three. We’ll see how it goes because we have some great sports stars in the field – Anthony Joshua, Johnny Peacock.
“The last ten years, I’ve been lucky to have the career I’ve had. I’m shocked. I didn’t prepare any speeches.
“I never thought, having come so close in 2012, that I would ever win. I owe it to the public for supporting me.
“Just having my name on this trophy like Seb Coe, David Beckham, so many legends have won it over the years.”
In consolation, Joshua was revealed to be nominated in no less than four categories in the WBN Awards list for 2017, which is expected to be followed up on Monday with the Briton being named on the list for voting for this year’s WBN Fighter of the Year.
