Anthony Joshua towers well above Paddy Barnes but that hasn’t stopped Ireland’s amateur boxer from joking about taking on the IBF world heavyweight champion. The boxing pair have both been in Rio, with Brit Joshua taking on punditry duties while two-time light-flyweight bronze medallist Barnes was competing for Ireland. And the duo sized each other up for an hilarious picture, where the 6ft 6in Joshua made Barnes look tiny in comparison.
The Irishman, standing at 5ft 4in, was forced to look up to the Brit as they posed for a picture during their time at the Olympic Games. Despite his obvious disadvantage when it comes to height, the amateur boxing star joked that he could take on the 2012 Olympic champion. Tweeting the picture of the pair on Sunday, Barnes captioned his post: ‘Reckon I could take him like.....@anthonyfjoshua’.
He then followed up his post by tweeting an edited version of the picture when the pair were matched when it came to height and build. Barnes suffered an early Olympics exit when he lost the decision to Spain’s Samuel Carmona in a thrilling bout that split the ringside judges.
