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Carl Froch delivered a stinging verdict on Anthony Joshua’s performance against Daniel Dubois.
Joshua was floored four times as the magnificent Dubois launched a relentless assault from the first bell that eventually ended with the clear favourite being counted out following a thrilling exchange of blows.
It was a devastating defeat and the fourth of his career which robbed him of a shot at becoming undisputed world champion. And after such a one-sided all-British showdown that lived up to explosive expectations, the former middleweight world champion Froch tore into Joshua’s display, saying: “I don’t think AJ wants it anymore.”
“Anthony Joshua got absolutley battered from pillar to post,” Froch said on his YouTube channel. “He walked to the ring and he looked nervous. He didn’t look confident. Daniel Dubois was smiling and enjoying himself.
“From round one Joshua was getting peppered with the jab, he was on his back foot, he was bolt upright, rigid, doing everything wrong. He was being pushed around the ring and bullied, Dubois came in like a world champion. He didn’t recover from those shots. He lacked ambition, he lacked self-belief and confidence.
“His powers of recover are terrible, he looked exhausted. I question Anthony Joshua’s desire to be in that boxing ring anymore. Everything was wrong. By round five he looked like he’d ran out of ideas, he looked like a beaten man.”
After the fight Joshua insisted he still had a future in boxing and would fight again, saying: “We took a shot at success and we came up short. What does that mean now? That we’re going to run away? We’re going to live to fight another day. And that’s what I am – I’m a warrior.”
And Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, suggested there would be a rematch between the pair. “Everyone is very fickle, aren’t they? Yesterday he was in the form of his life, has never looked better – wow, this is unbelievable this new resurgence.
“He has a bad start, gets dropped, tries to recover his feet and just goes to war with no legs. And finds a way back into the fight and walks on to one. It’s heavyweight boxing and that was the danger of this fight. It was a thriller and we just felt the tide was about to change, but you have to give Daniel credit.”
Yet Froch warned that this could be the end of the road for the beaten 34-year-old.
“Let’s be fair to AJ he came out in round five and had a go, almost like a last hurrah [but] I don’t think AJ wants it anymore,” Froch said. “He shouldn’t be boxing. That performance was weak. What next for AJ? I don’t even know. This could be see the last we see of Anthony Joshua. I just can’t see a future for Anthony Joshua.”
