Bob Arum: “I’ve never been high on Joshua,” not surprised by loss

Promoter Bob Arum says he was not surprised by Anthony Joshua’s knockout loss to Daniel Dubois last month because he has “never been high on” him. Wise Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he never rated Joshua and saw his five-round annihilation against Dubois as completely predictable.

Joshua finally fought someone with talent after his pseudo four-fight rebuild by his promoter and returned to the same fragile fighter he was in the past.

Some people believe that Joshua a manufactured warrior from the beginning, from the controversial 2012 Olympic gold medal and the carefully orchestrated career. Looking at Joshua’s 11-year resume, you have to conclude that his promoter, Eddie Hearn, marketed him well.

He did a great job matching AJ, and the British public bought into it. Unfortunately, he was never the real deal. Joshua was fool’s gold, but Arum was not one of the many who were fooled.

Arum feels that the former two-time heavyweight champion is Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs). “very vulnerable” now, and he doesn’t know if he can come back after being destroyed by Dubois in five rounds on September 21st.

Joshua’s seventh-round knockout loss to former Top Rank fighter Andy Ruiz Jr. was an eye opener for Arum, but the cracks in AJ’s facade were exposed long before that. We saw this in Joshua’s fight against the 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, when he was on the verge of being knocked out, but was knocked out by the former champion.

Then there was the 2015 fight against Dillian Whyte, in which Joshua was on his feet in the second round and needed four rounds to recover. That fight was the red flag, showing that Joshua was not what intelligent fans thought he was.

“I’ve always been high on Dubois. I’ve never been high on Joshua, but I never thought he was a great fighter, especially after the Andy Ruiz fight. Again, it didn’t surprise me,” Bob Arum said BoxNationdiscussing his thoughts on Anthony Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois.

It was clear from the moment the Joshua-Dubois fight was made that Joshua was headed for a knockout loss. What’s surprising is that Hearn let Joshua go through with the fight rather than put the brakes on that idea because he was never going to win.

Dubois has real talent, can hit and is young. In other words, he was pure kryptonite to Joshua. What’s surprising is that Joshua made it to the fifth round because the fight should have been stopped in the third round when the referee apparently called it quits, but then he changed his mind.

“I think Joshua is very, very vulnerable. Oh yes. I think the dumbest thing for Joshua would be to fight Dubois again,” Arum said.

It is doubtful that Joshua will take the rematch with Dubois, as Hearn must know what will happen if he tangles with the young lion a second time. If anything, Dubois will destroy Joshua more quickly in the rematch, rendering him useless for a fight against Tyson Fury in 2025.

Even if Hearn whips up another one of his rebuilds on Joshua, it won’t fool the public. They will have learned that AJ is not the fighter they foolishly thought he was.

“He (Dubois) always had talent. I went back to his fight against Usyk, which I watched on television. From what I saw, Dubois knocked Usyk out. I don’t think it was a low blow,” Arum said.

“It was right on the belt line, and if it was on the belt line, Usyk couldn’t get up in 10 seconds, couldn’t get up in 30 seconds, couldn’t get up in a minute, and Dubois would a champion,” Arum said.