Carl Froch has suggested Anthony Joshua could start to question his boxing future following his second consecutive defeat by Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua was looking to avenge his loss to Usyk when the pair met in Saudi Arabia in August but he met a similar fate, falling to a split-decision defeat. He will now face a significant rebuild having dropped out of the title picture for the first time in several years, and is eyeing fights against the likes of Dillian Whyte and Deontay Wilder in 2023.
'AJ' made huge wealth from his two previous fights pocketing £33million for the lucrative Middle East rematch, which will see him financially secure for his future. And Froch has claimed this will have a significant impact on his boxing future, and believes the Briton is still mentally scarred from his defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr.
“When you’ve made it and you’re world champion and you’re pretty much financially secure, you start to almost question being a boxer,” Froch told William Hill when discussing Joshua's future in the heavyweight division. “I think that’s Anthony Joshua ’s problem now. He got beat up by Andy Ruiz Jr and that’s mentally scarred him – he knows he can get hurt, he knows he can get stopped.
"But also AJ’s got to be worth £100 million, minimum. If you’ve got what you want out of life and you’ve achieved, why are you going to go back into the ring and get your head punched in? Why would you? It’s a dangerous sport. You have to weigh up whether the risk is worth the reward. What am I fighting for? Some more money that I don’t need and that I’ll never spend? What’s the risk? It could be goodbye.
"I just think when you get to a certain level in boxing and you’ve made your money, and your legacy is secure, like me when I boxed at Wembley and chinned Groves, I had nothing else left to do. You’re at the top of that mountain and all you can do is go down over the other side.”
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Joshua acted out of character following his recent defeat to Usyk, storming out of the ring and tossing his rival's belts as he became frustrated with the course of events. Joshua endured further frustration earlier this month when he again missed out on a shot at long-term rival Tyson Fury after missing the contract deadline.
The 33-year-old looked set to return before the end of the year but it now appears that he will return early in 2023 as he looks to move back up the rankings and assert a new shot at the heavyweight titles. His promoter Eddie Hearn has suggested a fight with Whyte is currently the "front runner" for his return in a rematch of their 2015 meeting.
