Anthony Joshua is under a lot of pressure right now having lost his most recent world title fight by knockout.
The two-time champion was once at the top of the world heavyweight tree but now finds himself at something of a crossroads. The fourth defeat of his career came at the hands of young Brit Daniel Dubois in September.
Dubois knocked Joshua down three times on his way to a fifth-round KO victory to retain his IBF world title. The loss was the fourth of AJ’s career having also lost previously to Andy Ruiz, which he avenged, and then twice to former undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk over 12 rounds.
He is now 35 years old and has had a total of 32 fights. Following the most conclusive defeat of his career, some in the sport are calling for him to retire.
Speaking to Seconds Out, former world champion turned Sky Sports pundit Johnny Nelson is one person who thinks it may be time to hang up the gloves.
“My reply to that is, in my opinion, and I’ll give a justifiable reason around it, its coming from a good place, I didn’t like to see that [knockout to Dubois] happen to ‘AJ’. The maths in my head as to why that happened tells me he should walk away.
“If that keeps happening after all the success you have, what you’ve done for British Boxing and all the champions you’ve fought, you keep regressing to that fight that makes such fundamental mistakes then it’s going to happen again and again.”
For his part, Joshua has confirmed he will fight on. Despite all the recent talk being of an immediate rematch with Daniel Dubois, promoter Eddie Hearn recently revealed they may take another route.
