Anthony Joshua to rest injured leg 2 to 3 weeks

By Boxing News - 06/07/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua will be resting up his injured left leg for two to three weeks after hurting it on a run in the woods. IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) says he’s still training with the injury in preparing for his title defense against Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) in October or November.

They were supposed to have fought on June 20, but the world events changed that.

The 29-year-old Joshua experienced a “slight twinge” in his left knee while running, according to his spokesman. Since suffering the injury, Joshua has been wearing a knee brace on his left knee and using crutches to get about.

When Joshua does come back from the injury, he needs to take care of business against the 6’4 1/2″ Pulev and get this fight out of the way already.

There are so many better match-ups for Joshua in the heavyweight division than the Pulev one, and he’s stuck with this one. It might be a good idea for Joshua to consider vacating some of his many titles if he gets passed Pulev and Tyson Fury.

What Joshua doesn’t need is for his career to go along the same path as former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, who wasted a lot of time with meaningless title defenses against challengers that brought very little to the table in terms of popularity.

Image: Anthony Joshua to rest injured leg 2 to 3 weeks

Joshua’s left knee expected to heal without problems

There is “no immediate concern,” said a spokesman for Joshua on his left knee problem. Only time will tell, though with Joshua’s knee. If he’s still hobbling around three months from now, they’ll realize that they guessed wrong about his knee.

The worst thing that could happen to Joshua is him needing knee surgery on his left knee. That would keep him out of action for likely the remainder of the year.

This weekend, AJ participated in a ‘Black Lives Matter’ rally in Watford, England, using crutches. However, Joshua surprisingly wasn’t wearing a mask as a precaution to guard against catching an illness from the many people in the crowd. It’s unclear why Joshua was willing to risk his health by attending a massive rally without a mask.

If this type of behavior is indicative of what Joshua is doing elsewhere by not wearing a mask, it’ll be interesting to see how long he can go before he catches the flu and is sidelined for many months while recovering from it.

“Respect for the supporters concerned about my leg. I bust my knee running miles in the woods. Doc said to take all weight off it for two/three weeks. Still training, still active, still punching. Two weeks to [go], then it’s off,” said Joshua via Michael Benson.

In Joshua’s last fight, he defeated Andy Ruiz Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision on December 7 in their highly anticipated rematch in Saudi Arabia.

For Joshua, that was sweet revenge because he lost to Ruiz by a seventh-round knockout in their first fight on June 1, 2019, in his American debut at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Hearn still working on location for Joshua-Pulev

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is still trying to put to figure out where to stage his fight against 39-year-old Pulev. Hearn is still hoping to have the Joshua-Pulev fight take place in England, but he’s looking at Croatia and the Middle East as possible locations as well.

Wherever the fight ends up, it’s essential that Joshua wins because he wants to fight WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) in 2021.

“I feel that when that fight will take place, which will probably be October, November, we will be able to have a small number of people in a crowd in the U.K.,” Heard said to ESPN.com.

Hearn is working along with Pulev’s management Bob Arum and Ivaylo Gotzev to come up with a location for the Joshua vs. Pulev fight. Usually, this wouldn’t be an issue, but with the obstacles that the pandemic presents, it makes things more complicated.

Image: Anthony Joshua to rest injured leg 2 to 3 weeks

If not for this situation, Joshua would likely face Pulev in London, England, in front of a massive football stadium-sized crowd of supporters.

There would be loads of money for Joshua and Matchroom to make with a big stadium fight. The British boxing fans don’t care that Pulev isn’t a high-profile opponent. They just want to see Joshua fight, and they don’t care if his opponent is considered to completely below his level.

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