Teddy Atlas says Joshua should retire if he only fights for money

Teddy Atlas says Anthony Joshua should retire if he is only focused on continuing his career just to get another “150 million” after his loss to Daniel Dubois last Saturday night.

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, wants him to fight Tyson Fury twice in 2025 and possibly reconsider Dubois. Those three fights would earn AJ a gazillion dollars, adding to his massive fortune. If Joshua loses all three of those fights, he will still make massive money.

Atlas believes Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) was “exposed” in his fifth-round KO loss to IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs). He says the mistakes Joshua made and got away with in previous fights didn’t work against Dubois, and he took advantage of those mistakes.

It goes back to Joshua’s trainers. AJ’s tactics during the Dubois fight were ones he practiced on sparring partners during training camp. Joshua’s trainer, Ben Davison, must have known that he wouldn’t beat a wrecking machine like Dubois who fights passively or by throwing beans.

“He has to decide: ‘Do I retire?’ He didn’t have to fight again. Ricky Hatton said he should retire. I agree with Ricky if it’s just about getting another 150 million pounds,” Teddy Atlas sided YouTube channel about Anthony Joshua having to retire if he only fights for money.

Joshua’s fans believe that he should not retire because they feel that his defeat was no big deal and that he can continue to enjoy success if he gets his tactics right. They could be right.

If Joshua fights on the front foot and attacks his opponents with a barrage of punches like he did earlier in his career, there aren’t too many heavyweights who can withstand that kind of firepower. However, Joshua hasn’t fought like this in many years, which makes him vulnerable.

“If that’s it, you’ve had enough. Go off into the sunset,” Atlas said of Joshua. People love you. But if there is something that keeps you up at night, then you have to fight for yourself again. Otherwise, no.”

There is too much fan interest in a clash between Joshua and Fury for AJ to step down now. It’s more than money with Joshua; he wants to compete to show that he can still win at the highest levels. However, Joshua will need a better trainer, and he doesn’t seem interested in making changes to his team after his loss to Dubois.

“Joshua was exposed. If you do come back, you need to see what you did wrong and what you did wrong in the past. Even if you got away with it, it’s still wrong. This needs to be fixed. If you fix it, maybe you can come back and do something big again,” Atlas said.