By Jack Tiernan: Barry McGuigan says Anthony Joshua’s career will be finished if he loses his fight against Jermaine Franklin on April 1st.
Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) has lost too many times for him to continue as a major player in the division, and losing to this level of opponent would be a clear sign that he needs to call it a day.
Assuming Joshua will stick around and concentrate on making money like Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte, he could continue bringing in huge revenue even if he continues to get beaten like clockwork.
The British fans won’t give up on Joshua as long as he occasionally wins, and with his power, he’s not going to experience long losing streaks unless he’s matched tough each time out like he’d been doing.
AJ’s focus on money now suggests that he’s already given up hopes of winning world titles and is seemingly only interested in feathering his next as much as possible to increase wealth for multi-generations of his offspring.
With Joshua’s current net worth of $80 million, he’s already got enough money to last his and his child’s lifetime.
Joshua fighting for money
“Yeah, that disappoints me because he surely has earned enough money, and he should be thinking about his legacy surely,” said Barry McGuigan to Seconds Out in reacting to Anthony Joshua saying that his focus is making money for his next fight against Jermaine Franklin.
“Whatever motivates a fighter, and it’s a very personal thing. For me, I was surprised at that, but it’s not altogether surprising. Fighters say, ‘I want to make money; I want to make sure I can put enough in the bank to do me until I’m an old man,’ then that’s understandable,” said McGuigan.
The major problem with Joshua fighting for legacy is that all the top heavyweights that can help him in that area are fighters he’d likely lose to. We’re talking about guys like Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Joe Joyce, Oleksandr Usyk, and Daniel Dubois.
Those are the big five that Joshua needs to focus on if he wants to concentrate on his legacy, but it appears that he’s stopped caring about his legacy and just wants money.
“If he wants to go back and win a world title, he’s got to pick the right opponents,” said McGuigan. “He’s got to build himself up to give himself the best chance, and he’s got the ability to do it. He’s just got to get on with it.”
If Joshua sticks around for another seven or eight years in the sport, he’ll win another world title because the belts will be fragmented at some point, and when that happens, he’ll go after one of them.
“I don’t know enough about Derrick James, but Shane says he’s a good coach. If he says he’s a good coach, then know he is,” said McGuigan.
Game over for AJ if he loses
“Yes, interesting in that we can compare it with Dillian Whyte, and we can see whether or not Anthony can get him out of there, which will tell us a lot about Anthony, and it’ll tell us if he can put the combinations together to get him out when Dillian Whyte couldn’t,” said McGuigan on whether Jermaine Franklin is a good choice for Joshua to fight on April 1st at the O2 Arena in London.
“So if he can blast the guy out in four or five rounds, that would be impressive. If he struggles to a 10 round decision and has a couple of bad patches in the fight, then we might think something different.
“It all depends. I wish him the best. I think if he loses, it’s game over,” said McGuigan about Joshua.