It was the most devastating of defeats for Anthony Joshua, and unsurprisingly it brought the most brutal of post-fight verdicts from Carl Froch.
Former world super-middleweight champion and now Hall of Famer Froch pulls few punches with his punditry, just as he did in the ring for all those years. And he was stunned as Joshua crashed to a shocking fifth-round knockout defeat by the phenom that is Daniel Dubois.
More than 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium expected Joshua (28-4) to become a three-time world heavyweight champion, but the script was torn up in incredible fashion by Dubois (22-2). He used his ramrod left jab to set up right-hand bombs which connected throughout a tumultuous night.
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AJ was on the floor in four of the five rounds and never really recovered from the first heavy knockdown at the end of Round 1. Froch was stunned by the fact that Joshua – a 34-year-old experienced two-time heavyweight champion in his sixth stadium fight – looked like the novice here.
Joshua looked like the novice
Speaking on his Froch On Fighting YouTube channel, he said: “It was Daniel Dubois that should have been the deer in the headlights, the guy that should have been nervous, he should have been the guy to start slowly and have to get going, but he didn’t. He came out behind that sharp, solid poised, jab – it’s a ramrod jab. Apparently that jab feels like a right hand when you’re on the end of it. And Anthony Joshua looked like he responded to that jab like a right hand was hitting him.
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“From Round 1 he was getting peppered with the jab. He was on his back foot, he was bolt rigid, upright, chin in the air. He was doing everything wrong. Right up to the point – and I’m gonna jump to the fifth-round knockout – right up to the point when he threw that stiff uppercut with his chin in the air, he walked into a right hand and he was flattened face first.”
Does AJ still have the desire?
Froch has been critical of Joshua in the past for some of his performances, and he now questions whether the 34-year-old – with so many millions already in the bank – has the required desire to still dine at heavyweight boxing’s top table. He also has major concerns about Joshua’s powers of recovery.
“The worrying thing for me is, every time Anthony Joshua got clipped on the chin, his legs were gone. His powers of recovery are terrible, he looked exhausted.
“I’m not gonna make an excuse for him because he’s been training, he’s physically fit, he’s strong, he’s done his sparring, the camp’s gone brilliantly. Ben Davison’s been there with him – he knows the game, he should have been preparing him properly.
“But this is the problem when you get the silk pyjamas – you lose the ambition. You don’t want it any more. I just question Anthony Joshua’s desire to be in that boxing ring any more. He’s not saying the right things, he’s not making the right noises, the body language when he’s in there, on the ring walk, is all wrong.”