Former world champion turned pundit Carl Froch has claimed that from what he has seen in his performances, one British former two-time world champion is ‘damaged.’
Mindset and confidence are always a huge part of any fighter’s success and taking a defeat can do plenty to knock that. Anthony Joshua has now had three in his career – a surprise knockout loss to late replacement Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019, then two tough 12-round points losses to Oleksandr Usyk from which he he is still rebuilding mentally.
Speaking on Froch on Fighting, The Cobra assessed where he thinks Joshua is at right now.
“Anthony Joshua, since the Ruiz loss, I think he’s a damaged fighter. I’ve got to be honest. I don’t think he’s ever been the same since that loss.”
Froch then argued that he has an insight into Joshua’s mindset from what he sees when ‘AJ’ fights.
“You can see by his performances what he’s thinking. I’m not privy to his sparring sessions or his gym sessions but when I watch him fight I’m concerned that it’s not there anymore.”
His advice to Joshua was to have another tune-up fight or spar hard before thinking about a Wilder bout, which he thinks he needs to approach in the same way that Fury did when besting him two out of three times.
“I think he needs to [fight once more] before he fights Wilder otherwise he needs some really hellish sparring and he needs to go in there and believe in himself and meet Wilder as he comes. That’s what Tyson Fury did. [Joshua] is big enough. If he uses his height and reach and weight and doesn’t get clipped on the chin I think he can do well.”
With Joshua vs Wilder now looking more unlikely, it’s expected that ‘AJ’ will look for a new opponent for a December fight.