Gareth A. Davies believes Anthony Joshua’s legacy is in shambles after Daniel Dubois knocked the stuffing out of him in an embarrassing fifth round knockout last Saturday night.
Joshua’s career is essentially over unless he avenges the loss, which doesn’t look promising. He was tight-lipped after the fight about whether he should use his rematch clause to force a second fight against Dubois. Hearn talked about possibly exercising the rematch clause, but his facial expression didn’t look convincing.
You could see the wheels turning in Hearn’s head, weighing up the potential of Joshua getting knocked out again, and he wasn’t about to say with 100% conviction that AJ would face Dubois again. I wouldn’t do that if I were Hearn. Joshua could make some good money fighting the washed-up Tyson Fury and then either retire or continue to face those types of fighters.
Legacy-wise, Joshua’s resume doesn’t stand out. His best win was against 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, who retired and was not the same guy due to his age and the absence of his trainer, Emanuel Steward. He died five years earlier, in 2012.
Joshua and Hearn will likely decide not to take the rematch with Dubois and focus on going after the guaranteed guaranteed payday fight that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wants.
With the fight financed by Turki, it doesn’t matter if it fails to bring in the money it would if both fighters win and are still at the top of their games. AJ’s career has been well managed from the start in 2013, and there’s no way he’ll be led into a dangerous rematch that he has little chance of winning against Dubois.
If Joshua is going to win the rematch, he will need to make some big changes to his fight strategy, physical conditioning and training team. Where AJ is now, he won’t beat Dubois in a rematch.
Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) was the favorite to win by the oddsmakers and the boxing public, giving IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) almost no chance. They saw it as just another night at the office for AJ and were fooled by how impressive he looked in his previous four appearances.
“You have to give credit to Anthony Joshua for hanging on after his world was ripped out from under him by that overhand right in the last 20 seconds of the first round,” said Gareth A. Davies. talkSport Boxingwhich discusses how things quickly went downhill for Anthony Joshua after Daniel Dubois was clipped in the first round last Saturday.
“How he continued until the fifth round and almost saved victory from the jaws of defeat, it is beyond almost any of us. This leaves Anthony Joshua’s legacy in a mess right now, and where he goes in the future is very uncertain.
Davies mentioned how Joshua almost “rescued victory from the jaws of defeat” in the fifth round after landing one punch but seconds later was face first on the canvas. Promoter Eddie Hearn says Joshua then got too “greedy” and went for the finish when he should have been more calculated.
“Last night it was the AJ show because the champion (Dubois) walked first, which is also unusual. He was also treated like the A side and walked out. I picked Joshua to win. I thought he had the ability to do it but he never recovered from being hit by that right hand in the first round,” said Gareth.
The fight was basically over in the first round after Dubois hurt Joshua with a right hand haymaker thrown from long range in the final 20 seconds. Joshua thought he was out of reach of Dubois’ punches, but didn’t consider his ability to launch a missile from that far. The punch nailed Joshua on the chin and sent him down. Joshua fought defensively and threw very few punches in rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5.
“He didn’t execute his game plan. He faced a young man who wanted to beat him in a duel, and he lost in a duel. They are both big, explosive punchers. He didn’t produce last night. Check out the punch stats.
“He threw 117 punches in those five rounds and landed 32 because he was in survival mode for most of it. He hit. This is the first time he has been beaten. It was a one-sided battle,” Gareth said of Joshua.
Joshua appeared to be in a ‘Last Stand’ type of combat situation, overmanned and underequipped with his offensive firepower. He left his Gatling gun behind and was armed with only single-shot weapons. Joshua couldn’t put up that kind of fight against a powerful fighter with the type of cardio and high pressure offense that Dubois had.
What a night of boxing 🤩Presented by @outosone 🥊#JoshuaDubois pic.twitter.com/LVe830vlQk
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 21, 2024
