By Charles Brun: Joe Joyce says Anthony Joshua’s punch resistance is gone, and his heart is no longer in the game at this stage in his nine-year career.
Joyce sees Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) as only staying around the sport as a “businessman,” making money and sticking around the sport for monetary reasons.
AJ is still popular enough to attract audiences for PPV purposes based on his past accomplishments many years ago, but no longer capable of cutting the mustard against genuine top-level opposition.
Joyce doubts whether Joshua will win his recently announced rematch with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on August 20th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
It would be a massive disappointment for DAZN if Joshua were to lose to Usyk again because they just gave AJ a monstrous deal for him to sign with them.
Few boxing fans understand DAZN’s rationale for choosing to sign Joshua at this point in his career.
DAZN’s decision to sign the fading Joshua is reminiscent of the Boston Braves signing 40-year-old Babe Ruth at the end of his career in 1935, hoping to use the faded past, his best baseball legend, as a gate attraction.
It ended up as a dismal failure, with Ruth retiring. Joshua isn’t as old as Ruth, but his game has deteriorated as the Babes.
If Joshua does beat Usyk, he’ll need to defend against Joyce, who is ranked #1 WBO, #2 WBC, and in the position to challenge for a world title immediately.
“If by some miracle Joshua beats Usyk, he will have to face me or vacate the belt,” Joe Joyce said to The Sun. “His chin has gone, and I don’t think his heart is fully in the game anymore. He’s a businessman. [Joshua is] more interested in lecturing students.”
We don’t need Joe Joyce to tell us that Joshua’s chin is gone because it’s been plain to see since his fight with Wladimir Klitschko in 2017. Since the Klitschko fight, Joshua has been hurt against Carlos Takam, Andy Ruiz Jr, Alexander Povetkin, and Usyk.
If Joshua had fought aggressively against Uysk last September, he probably would have been stopped as he’d been against Ruiz Jr.
That’s why it seems like a terrible waste of Joshua’s time to replace trainer Robert McCracken with U.S coach Robert Garcia because he will get knocked out if he fights aggressively against Usyk.
McCracken was wise to have Joshua box Usyk last time out because if he’d slugged with him, he’d have gassed or gotten clipped with one of the counter shots that Oleksandr is famous for landing.
“I’m No. 1 with the WBO,” Joyce said. “And when Usyk beats Joshua again, I’ll show you how a proper heavyweight in 10oz gloves deals with a man who lost to a welterweight in the amateurs.”
Usyk beat Joyce in the World Series of boxing in a five-round bout, but it wasn’t long enough to tell us how the two would do in a 12-round professional bout.
