By Charles Brun: Writer Colin Hart believes that Anthony Joshua is now a “spent force” at age 32 after suffering recent upset losses to Oleksandr Usyk and Andy Ruiz Jr. Joshua has proven to be unadaptable, and those types don’t last in the sport.
According to Hart, Joshua has become “gunshy,” and he doesn’t believe that we’ll see the AJ that he was several years ago.
The fighters that are incapable of changing, like Joshua, are weeded out of the sport. If Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn had any persuasive power, he could talk AJ into stepping aside to let Tyson Fury take the fight with Usyk.
Unfortunately, Hearn seems to favor Joshua’s wacky idea of fighting Usyk in an immediate rematch. In that respect, Hearn is an enabler.
Hart says that if IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) fights Joshua again, he’ll defeat him again, which will effectively ruin any chances of seeing an AJ vs. Tyson Fury fight.
If it were up to Hart, he’d tell Joshua to sit back and let Fury fight Usyk and then he’d face the winner of that fight.
Of course, Joshua has already made up his mind, and he’s dogged determined to take the immediate rematch, believing that he can win the fight with Usyk by fighting aggressively and roughing him up.
Hart says Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) isn’t going to make much headway in fixing his flaws because he feels that with AJ being in his 30s, he’s not going to change.
In other words, Joshua is set in his ways and will continue to fight in the same way with the same flaws. Charles Brun sees Joshua as being bullheaded and completely intractable.
Hart says Joshua is a “Spent force”
“I think Joshua is a spent force. I think the Joshua that we saw a few years ago, we’ll never see again,” said writer Colin Hart to TalkSport on his view that Anthony Joshua is washed up at 32.
“I think he’s gunshy, and I think that was proved against [Kubrat] Pulev. If you remember, I think it was the fourth or the fifth round; he had Pulev all over the place.
“The bell went, and in the next round, instead of going in and finishing the job, what did he do? He stood off of him, and they went another four or five rounds [before knocking him out in the ninth], which he shouldn’t have done,” said Hart on Joshua letting Pulev off the hook.
“So, there’s a flaw in Mr. Joshua at the moment, in my opinion. I think if [Oleksandr] Usyk fights him again, he will beat him again, and that will mean that we’ll never see Joshua and Fury.
“I’m not his manager or promoter, but what I would have said to Joshua is ‘sit back and wait. Let Fury fight Usyk, and then you fight the winner,'” said Hart when asked what his thoughts are on Joshua’s decision to head straight into an immediate rematch with Usyk,
“He’s now changing his complete training regime from what I understand. It looks like Rob McCracken is going to leave the camp, and he’s going to bring a new training regime.
Can AJ change?
“He’s over 30 years of age. Can leopards change their spots at that time of life? I doubt it. Mind you, what happened in his corner during the Usyk fight was a disgrace.
“I don’t know what was going on there, but there wasn’t one voice telling him what to do. There seemed to be several voices telling him what to do, and he couldn’t do it anyway,” said Hart.
You can argue that Joshua has been a spent force by large since his fight with Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
Although Hearn cleverly got three more wins out of Joshua before the bottom fell out in his knockout loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019.
Hearn delayed the inevitable by feeding Joshua weak opponents after Wladimir dented his chin, but he was exposed once again when he put him in with Ruiz.
At this point, Joshua is like a floundering ship that is crumbling on the service of a raging sea, about to take its final plunge.
If Hearn was a little more forceful, he could keep AJ’s ship afloat for another year to keep bringing in the green, but he appears unwilling to. You can’t do that when you’ve got a fighter whose career is on the brink of an implosion like Joshua.
Joshua too start training camp in February
“Camp is imminent, he’s training every day, but proper camp will probably start at the beginning of February,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on when Anthony Joshua will begin training for Usyk rematch.
“Yeah, I think so,” Hearn said when asked if April is around the time Joshua will face Usyk in the rematch. “I think if he fights Usyk, it’s a stadium fight. It’ll probably be in London, and April will be good.