It is now eight months since Anthony Joshua stepped into a professional boxing ring, but the wait is not nearly over.
The British superstar was blasted out inside five shocking rounds by Daniel Dubois last September as he failed in his bid to join the select band of three-time world heavyweight champions. Since then AJ has been on the sidelines, rehabbing an injury to the upper part of his body as he looks to make his ring return.
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed recently that Joshua was about to return to the gym with his next fight mooted for late August or September. But then last weekend we got more news to derail that plan.
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Joshua, ringside for that Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull show in Saudi Arabia, revealed that he is about to undergo surgery on an elbow injury, a procedure which will keep him out of the gym for a further 6-8 weeks.
So what actually is the injury, and what does it mean for the heavyweight superstar?
Joshua explains injury, and surgery
AJ, speaking to iFL TV, said: “They’re obviously gonna go in – long story short, the bone in the joint is free at the minute. This is my left arm. It’s nice and free. But over a period of time, there’s a signal that gets sent to the brain, like, (This) keeps on jamming, what’s going on? We need to grow some more bone to protect this area. But ultimately I needed to be free, because of my job.
“But it’s like, my body is doing the right thing, getting stronger, to protect itself from this trauma that keeps happening. So over a period of time, what they tend to do is, they go in, with a small little drill. A thin little drill – keyhole surgery – go into the elbow, and just file it down, nice and precise. It’s like a tooth, if you have a root canal, or whatever you call it, you know? File the tooth down, someone’s there with a suction, taking out all the bone that’s floating around, and then it’ll just heal, really.
“But you gotta make sure you do your rehab, do all your strength work, as well, because after surgery you need to focus on making sure you get the range of motion back. And then once it’s fully healed, you ice it, acupuncture, strengthen it. Good as new, back to work, basically.”
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While the surgery will of course curtail some of AJ’s training as he plots a comeback path, he says it’s important he puts the focus on other areas during that time.
“During that period of time, you don’t just shut down. Because if the right hand is out of action, you still use your left. You practise your doubles, triples jabs, jabbing off time, jabbing off, jabbing to the body, left hooks, left hooks to the body, left uppercuts, and practise your head movement, can practise your feet. And do some technical sparring and stuff. So there’s a lot of work that can still be done in the meantime, so.. Yeah, it’s not actually a bad thing.”
When will Joshua fight again?
The smart money right now appears to be on Joshua returning to action very late in 2025, likely December.
He himself has spoken about four potential opponents, including his great British rival Tyson Fury. They have yet to meet inside the ring despite signing for two fights in 2021. That plan was scuppered by Deontay Wilder winning an arbitration ruling to force a trilogy fight vs Fury.
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Joshua’s other potential foes include the likes of exciting German talent Agit Kabayel, Congolese star Martin Bakole and the aforementioned Wilder.
As of now Joshua is on the outside looking in when it comes to the world heavyweight title picture. The belts are currently held by Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois, and they meet at Wembley Stadium on July 19 to crown the sport’s next undisputed world heavyweight champion.
