The instinct that decides heavyweight fights
The part that decides battles lives in the split second between seeing an opening and committing to it.
Since the accident, Joshua has kept a low profile, limited to some gym footage, a short video message and later comments from Eddie Hearn.
Speaking to First Round TV, Hearn said: “I don’t think there are any guarantees that he will fight again, but at the same time I expect him to because it’s something he likes.” He added that Joshua has been training but “isn’t ready yet, and won’t be for a while, to return to boxing training.”
Love has never been the dividing line at the elite level. Heavyweight champions survive because they operate with some isolation. At his best, Joshua stepped into range without apparent hesitation, accepting the risk of counters and trusting his right hand to finish exchanges. That kind of commitment requires a narrowing of focus that excludes anything outside the ropes.
We have already seen how Joshua deals with defeat within the sport. He rebuilt after Andy Ruiz stopped him and tried to adjust after two losses against Oleksandr Usyk. These were boxing setbacks that required tactical correction and emotional control. Real trauma carries a different weight because it changes how a man processes risk in everyday life, and that processing doesn’t automatically turn off under bright lights.
A heavyweight who stands still to measure every danger is vulnerable. If the jab pulls back a little slower or the back foot lingers before planting, the other man will step in and take ground. The difference between shooting instinctively and calculating first can be a single beat, and at this level that beat is enough for the opponent to seize control.
We will know early
Joshua is 36 and has already traveled the full arc of champion, dethroned champion and rebuilding. The long-rumored Fury fight now feels secondary to a more immediate concern, which is whether Joshua even wants to stand in that space where violence is accepted without thought. Belts and rivalries can wait; the psychological adjustment cannot be rushed.
No fighter returns unchanged from a shock of this magnitude. Some come back strengthened by it and channel grief into focus. Others fight like men who have seen the cost of risk too clearly to ignore. The public will not need months to work out which version appears. The answer will emerge early, in the first committed exchange, when he must decide whether to let go of his hands without thinking about what might come back.
Joshua doesn’t need a payday or a legacy boost. He has already secured both. The real test of this comeback is whether he can still narrow his world down to the ring for twelve rounds and accept danger without flinching. If that instinct remains intact, he remains relevant at the top level. If it isn’t, no amount of training will cover it up for long.
