Anthony Joshua and Parker face off and stare into each other’s soul for the first time ahead of their March 31st world heavyweight unification bout.

The feeling was one generally of mutual respect today but Anthony Joshua did pipe up however when it came to Parker promoter David Higgins’s alleged sparring knockdown stories about him.

Joshua really came off well at that point in the presser I thought.

He essentially shut Higgins’ claims down and clarified that he’s only ever seen the floor three times in his boxing career.

Both as an amateur and pro.

Higgins seemed to back down a bit in the press conference also when Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn pushed him on his claims that Joshua is mentally weak.

Higgins essentially back peddled in what he said in the media about Joshua compared to that when he was only five feet away from him today.

If any team got the better of the press conference today it would have been Joshua and Hearn for me.

They remained calm and composed – and exhibited more of a sense of confidence with their body language and tone of voice in my opinion.

Here is the moment when the two men that matter came face to face with one another for the first time (hat tip IFL YouTube):