Eddie Hearn danced around the topic of whether Anthony Joshua would be willing to go through another career rebuild if he lost to IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London.
Hearn didn’t want to admit that Joshua, 34, could be facing retirement if he’s destroyed by Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) because that’s a very real possibility. Even if Joshua didn’t retire, he would be putting his career on the line in a rematch.
Joshua is coming off a lengthy two-year, flour-fight rebuild after his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022.
He’s spent a lot of time coming back from that defeat, and there’s no telling if he’s fully back or not because the opposition that Hearn has matched him against has been non-world-class fighters. Francis Ngnanou, Otto Wallin and Robert Helenius are not world-class fighters.
So, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) when he gets in there with Dubois, a fighter who is in the zenith of his career at 27, full of confidence from three consecutive impress performances.
“Every fight for Anthony Joshua is important at this stage. He’s trying to become a three-time heavyweight champion, but he has lost and rebuilt already. How high are the stakes for him in a fight like this?” said Chris Mannix to Matchroom Boxing, talking to promoter Eddie Hearn about what happens to Anthony Joshua if he loses to Daniel Dubois on September 21st. “If it doesn’t go his way, might he be willing to rebuild all over again?
Joshua probably won’t agree to another four-fight rebuild because his pride would be wounded if he walked away from a loss to the much younger Dubois, who he was expected to beat. He would have to fight Dubois again, and that’s where things could really fall apart.
Would Joshua be willing to keep going after losing twice to Dubois? Dereck Chisora showed that the British public doesn’t care how often he loses. Would it be the same for Joshua?
“Coming off the Usyk defeat, everyone was talking about when it was Franklin and Helenius, and particularly Wallin and Ngannou. ‘Oh, if Anthony loses here’ or ‘Oh, if he loses here.’ What if he wins? I think that the pressure of defeat for Anthony has always been there, but it’s only on himself,” said Hearn.
Those are poor examples by Hearn. Fans didn’t think Joshua was going to lose to Otto Wallin or Francis Ngannou. Those two fights were seen as mismatches in favor of Joshua, and the same with his bouts against Robert Helenius and Jermaine Franklin.
“I was with him last Friday for camp. He’s pumped for this fight [Dubois],” said Hearn. “He’s talking, ‘I’ve got to win this fight.’ Normally, it’s chilled. ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine.’ He knows the importance of this fight. We know the threat of Dubois. No one is trying to badmouth Dubois.”
Joshua is obviously nervous, knowing how important the Dubois fight is for his career. He’s got the Tyson Fury mega-payday ahead of him in 2025, and he understands that he can’t back into that fight off a loss to Dubois.
“We don’t need to undersell Dubois. We’re aware of the risk,” said Hearn. “He’s a young man in his prime that has a high volume and that is a big puncher. This is a very dangerous fight, but you have two heavyweights that are in the form of their career right now.
“I was watching some sparring of AJ back in the past and watching some of his fights when he beat the likes of [Wladimir] Klitschko [in April 2017]. I actually realize now what a raw novice AJ was when he was fighting the likes of Klitschko. He was upright and all brawn,” said Hearn.
Joshua doesn’t look like he’s improved since his fight with Wladimir in 2017. He’s gotten older and slower and doesn’t throw as many punches now as he did back then. He struggled against the 41-year-old Wlasdimir in that fight, getting dropped. If this had been a younger Wladimir, who still had Emanuel Steward in his corner as his trainer, Joshua would have been in trouble.
Steward had passed away five years earlier, and Wladimir didn’t follow in instructions from his corner to go after Joshua after he dropped him. He was urged to, but he wouldn’t do it.
Steward would have motivated Wladimir to finish Joshua, and AJ’s career would have never taken off the way it did. Fate worked in Joshua’s favor, but it could have quickly gone the other way if he’d fought Wladimir when he was younger and still had Steward.
“He’s now a complete all-around fighter, but it doesn’t matter in the heavyweight division. You’re in with a big puncher, and it can change. This fight [Joshua vs. Dubois] could be over very early, or it could go deep. AJ, as always, prepared for every eventuality.
“This is a big fight for him personally. Three-time heavyweight world champion. That’s not an accomplishment that many have achieved in the sport,” said Hearn.
This is a very big moment for Joshua, facing a young fighter with the power, chin and the motivation that Dubois is bringing to their fight on September 21st.
