Anthony Joshua should be pushing for his rematch against Daniel Dubois to take place on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk show in December if he is serious about boxing again, according to former world champion Johnny Nelson.
Joshua’s bid to become a three-time heavyweight champion ended in disaster at Wembley Stadium last month with Dubois securing a devastating fifth round knockout victory to defend his world title.
The 34-year-old almost immediately ruled out the possibility of retirement with his promoter Eddie Hearn revealing this week ‘AJ’ is currently leaning towards an immediate rematch rather than waiting for the winner of Fury vs Usyk. Those two meet in a rematch of their own in 21 December in Saudi Arabia after the undefeated Ukrainian’s stunning win over ‘The Gypsy King’ in May.
Former cruiserweight champion Nelson is among those who have urged Joshua to walk away from boxing given just how damaging that defeat to Dubois was. ‘If you take money out of the equation, he shouldn’t continue fighting. Walk away,’ Nelson told .
But if the Dubois rematch is the path he chooses to go down, December’s card should be a realistic option, says Nelson.
Speaking ahead of another British heavyweight rematch between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke this weekend, Nelson said: ‘It is so close to call and for it to happen so quickly after the first fight, you couldn’t ask for more.
‘There is no warm up, no long layoff. If ‘AJ’ was going to fight Dubois again, I would like to see it on the undercard of Fury vs Usyk. And it can be. There is time. Yes, I know both we were in tough training camps. But there is a short space of time where the appetite from the British public is still there like we have with this one on Saturday.’
Nelson however has grave concerns for Joshua should that rematch get signed off. For all the former champion’s messages of positivity since the defeat, the Sky Sports pundit is not convinced Joshua has the confidence to match his ability behind closed doors.
‘AJ is an amazing motivational speaker but the problem is, he doesn’t believe what he is saying,’ Nelson said.
In the immediate aftermath of the defeat, questions were asked of Joshua’s corner, led by head trainer Ben Davison. But Nelson insists the responsibility is with Joshua who after years of fighting at the very highest level simply cannot be caught short making the most simple of mistakes, accusing him of ‘going to work without his tools’.
‘The amount of former champions Anthony Joshua has boxed and beaten is ridiculous,’ Nelson said. ‘The experience he has, you can’t buy, borrow or pretend to have. So the mistakes he made in the fight should not have been made. He has no excuses. He’s not still learning. It has happened too often.
‘”I have made mistakes, I have learned from them.” How many times is he going to do this? He is 34 years old and is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The success he has had, the champions he has beaten, what more is there to learn at this level?
‘He has shown the outstanding battle he has in him with so much success. So why do you keep forgetting your tools? Leaving them back in the dressing room? This is the wrong sport to be forgetting your tools.
‘For Joshua to be still be making mistakes at this level, there is something fundamentally wrong with him. Not with the training. Because it would be easy to blame Ben [Davison]. In reality, his job is to shine the shoes, polish ‘AJ’ and tell him he knows what he is capable of doing. The responsibility is with AJ.’
After back-to-back defeats to Usyk, Joshua was forced back from the world title scene. A run of four wins in less than a year against Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou left him looking like his destructive best again but that dominance he had rediscovered abandoned him on the night against Dubois.
‘We all saw that devastating knockout against Ngannou. That wasn’t necessarily about skill but it was about how he came out and took this guy off his feet. So how can you come out so confidently there but not against Dubois?’ Nelson asked.
‘I personally think if you are going to do the rematch, do it straight away, Because it doesn’t matter how many warm up fights you have and how good you look in between, he’s done that already. Get it done now.
‘But at this stage, I think there is something fundamentally missing. We are looking everywhere, his trainers, his conditioning. But the problem is AJ. In his head.’