Anthony Joshua has been warned that if he fights one heavyweight he will get beaten worse than he did by Daniel Dubois.
It has been a while since Joshua was the king of the heavyweight division. At one point, he was a unified champion who was beating most men he faced and he had one of the best CVs in the division. An upset loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 was the first derailment, though he rebuilt after regaining his belts in the rematch.
A pair of back-to-back fights with Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022 then left him without a belt after 24 rounds and another rebuild mission saw him fight his way back to a world title fight with Dubois last September.
It ended in disaster for ‘AJ’ who was down at the end of the first round and then stopped in the fifth round. Since then he has been out recovering from injury.
Many hoped he would finally step into the ring with Tyson Fury, who also lost twice to Usyk, but retired in January. As such his next fight options include a potential rematch with Dubois, but he has now also been called out by Hughie Fury.
Speaking to Morson Sport, he expressed his desire to fight Joshua before he retires and was asked if he would do a better job than Dubois.
“100% [I’ll beat him worse than Dubois]. These are the fights I want. Joshua’s had a great career, you can’t knock the fella, he’s been there at the elite level, he’s done great things for boxing but I believe his time is done. He’s only got a few fights left and hopefully, I will be one of them.”
Hughie – first cousin of two-time world champion Tyson – suffered three years out between 2021 and 2024 due to ongoing symptoms of long covid. Three low-key wins in last year paired with a fifth round body shot stoppage of Dan Garber this past weekend in London provided much needed activity. He has challenged once for the world title, against Joseph Parker in 2017, and would represent a significant step down for ‘AJ’ in terms of big names.
