Anthony Joshua will have his career on the line against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
The end of the road for Joshua
Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) turns 35 in two months on October 15 and is too old to rebuild after a knockout loss to the 26-year-old Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs).
Trying to bounce back from another loss would be too much for AJ, and it would be futile to take His Excellency Turki Alalshikh up on his offer to still make the fight with Tyson Fury even after a loss to Dubois.
If Fury loses the rematch with WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21, the dream All Brit Fury-Joshua fight will be even sadder because the boxing public will see it as:
- Grabbing money
- Old fashioned people
Joshua and Fury would come off losses and try to sell their fight to the world. It wouldn’t be a good idea for them to do that, but I wouldn’t put it past either.
As for Joshua being rebuilt by trainer Ben Davison and refurbished to factory settings in 2013, that is not the reality. The only thing that happened is that Joshua beat the absolute worst opposition that promoter Eddie Hearn could find to make him look good again.
Joshua’s artificial makeover
– Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
—Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
“If AJ gets beaten by Dubois, even AJ can’t rebuild himself to be a force again. I don’t think so at this stage of his career. If Dubois loses, he will come again. He will rebuild. If AJ loses, that’s it, and that’s why I think he’ll win,” Ade Oladipo told talkSport Boxing YouTube channel, explaining why he is picking Anthony Joshua to defeat IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21.
It’s already too late to rebuild Joshua because he’s already in his mid-30s, and he was severely flawed from the start. Even during the ‘good years’ for AJ, Hearn matched up against tough, beatable opposition such as 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, Charles Martin, Alexander Povetkin, Joseph Parker, Eric Molina and Carlos Takam.
This is as good as it gets for Joshua in terms of his best wins during the prime of his career. He didn’t fight an excellent Wladimir, unless you consider a motionless 41-year-old Wlad to be in his prime. He was old, without his trainer Emanuel Steward, who passed away and was beaten by Tyson Fury two years earlier in 2015.
The Fury Fight: A Dream That Fades?
“It’s a fight that AJ really wants (Fury),” Ade said about the Joshua vs. Fury fight. “It would be so weird if AJ were to end his career in a few years, and that doesn’t include a Wilder or Fury. It’s weight, but it’s going to be too hard to make because Fury has to get past Oleksandr Usyk, and we saw how it played out last time (on May 18 with Tyson losing by a 12-round decision ).
It won’t be the end of the world if Joshua and Fury don’t fight because some things just aren’t meant to be. Both guys are already rich and not hurting for money. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Joshua’s net worth is estimated at $80 millionwhile Fury’s is $140 million. If they don’t fight, they will still live like some rich kings in England or wherever they retire.
“I know Turki (Alalshikh) talked about ‘It doesn’t matter if Fury loses, you can still make AJ-Fury.’ You can, but the interest is not the same. If both (Fury and Joshua) were to win, it’s the biggest fight we’ve ever seen in this country and one of the biggest fights in the world of sports. But if Fury were to lose, someone would desperately want AJ vs. Fury wanted to see? Will Fury want to fight AJ? I’m not entirely sure,” says Ade.
The last thing fans need is Joshua and Fury fighting if one or both of them lose their next fights. It’s so late in both of their careers that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. Fury looks to be in his mid-50s, and Joshua can no longer land a punch. He is at the point where his promoter Hearn is backing him up with his smart matches.
