Anthony Joshua feared Jay-Z was going to punch him at Will Smith movie premiere

Anthony Joshua has revealed how he once thought hip-hop icon Jay-Z was going to punch him in the head.

The heavyweight boxing champion recalled a time in 2013 where he met the billionaire rapper at a Will Smith movie premiere in the United States and asked for a picture.

AJ, 31, is now a global icon after defeating the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and Andy Ruiz but was only a rising star at the time, having just come off winning a gold medal at the London Olympic games.

And his fan-boying over Jay-Z apparently angered the 51-year-old from Brooklyn after the boxer grabbed his wrist.

Speaking to William Hill, Joshua said: “Jay-Z was cool. I was at a Will Smith premiere once, years ago.

“So imagine – you know those lovely houses that are like mansion houses and they’ve got a stairway in the middle and they depart around left and right and they come back?

“Pure opulence. I was at this big premiere and it was one of those big staircases and I was in the top left. And I saw Jay-Z walk in.

“And in my head, I was like, ‘Yo, there’s Jay-Z.’ Know what I mean? Ready to jump down the balcony. But I thought, ‘Play it cool’.

“So I thought, what way is he gonna come up these stairs. Because if I stand on the left and he goes on right, there’s too many people, it’s a premiere.

“Thank God I stood at the right side. As he come up, I was kind of like (grabs his wrist), ‘Jay, do you mind if I get a picture?’

“And he kind of looked at my hand, yeah, like, ‘Boy, I will bust your head if you don’t get off my hand.’

“But it was just one of those things where I just gave the guy the camera.

“And in that picture, I think it’s one of the first pictures on my Instagram, Jay-Z has just got a plain face. And there’s me with a big smile.”

Joshua will defend his titles against unbeaten Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.