By Jake Tiernan: Deontay Wilder’s coach says from what he’s seen, Anthony Joshua has not been the same fighter he once was since his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
In Joshua’s win last weekend against Jermaine Franklin, he looked like a shell of the fighter he’d been in the best years of his career from 2013 to 2017.
Malik pinpoints the issue, saying that the defeat Joshua suffered against Ruiz four years ago has left an imprint on AJ, making him overthink inside the ring and showing a timid nature alien to the fighter he’s been earlier in his career.
Does Joshua have PTSD?
Joshua looks like the equivalent of a shell-shocked war vet who has seen too much horror, leaving him not wanting to return to the frontlines to continue fighting. Joshua’s behavior inside and outside the ring has seemed strange.
The rambling nonsense that Joshua spouted after his loss to Oleksandr Usyk last August and the bizarre stuff that he was chirping after his win last Saturday against Franklin makes some fans wonder if AJ has lost his senses completely.
Since the first Ruiz fight in which AJ was knocked out, he’s not shown the willingness to fight aggressively by attacking his opponents as he’d done earlier.
If Joshua is shell-shocked from his experience against Ruiz, it could prove next to impossible to bring him out of it to return him to the fighter/person he’d been before quickly enough to save his career.
War vets with PTSD sometimes take years to return to normal functioning, and it requires a lot of work. If left untreated, the symptoms could endure. It’s unknown if Joshua is getting mental help to help him cope with the psychological trauma he experienced in his loss to Ruiz.
“He comes across as a little bit gun-shy,” said Malik Scott to Boxing King Media about Anthony Joshua looking timid.
“Ever since he fought [Andy] Ruiz [in the first fight between them in June 2019], even when he has looked at his best against [Kubrat] Pulev and Ruiz II, those were still real tactical, safety-first victories for him,” Scott continued about the changes he’s observed with Joshua.
“Ever since that [that defeat against Ruiz], he has been overthinking in the ring,” Scott said about AJ. “For someone that big, someone that strong, that is not a good thing.”
