An active world heavyweight champion thinks that Anthony Joshua has lost all confidence in himself.
Joshua has had several setbacks in his career but has managed to overcome some. The first was his upset loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019, which he avenged in the rematch.
He then managed to put back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk behind him and put together a steady run of wins before being knocked out by Daniel Dubois.
Since then he has stopped Jake Paul and Kristian Prenga – despite an early knockdown – and now heads into this super fight with Tyson Fury in December looking to be at his explosive best.
However, speaking to The Stomping Ground, IBF heavyweight champion Fillip Hrgovic questioned the sense in Joshua changing coaches once more, having done so a number of times before.
He has previously worked with Rob McCracken, Robert Garcia, Oleksandr Usyk and Ben Davison, who he is returning to for this contest.
“Look, Anthony Joshua changed already 20 coaches, so I think it’s not about coaches. I think he’s complicating too much and he lost that confidence in himself. I think psychologically he’s not in a good place and obviously he’s doing this, and if you’re not in a good place with yourself no coach can help you.
“Emanuel Steward or any coach in history or all of them together, it’s not going to help you if you’re not in a good place with yourself, if you don’t have confidence in yourself. It’s not about coaches, it’s about him.”
He then suggested ‘AJ’ is taking the fight for the wrong reasons and should walk away.
“He’s doing this fight for financial reasons, and after this fight he should retire.”
As well as there being plenty of money on the line, both men are fighting for legacy and bragging rights over a fellow Brit. Whoever comes out on top will secure their own status in the history books, but also claim a third and likely final world title with the WBA belt up for grabs.
