Anthony Joshua is finally set to take on Tyson Fury in December, but one reigning heavyweight world champion has declared his belief that ‘AJ’ should hang up the gloves.
Joshua returned to action against Kristian Prenga back in July in his second fight with Iegor Golub in his corner but, despite officially registering a second-round stoppage win, the performance has been highly criticised due to ‘AJ’ twice being dropped by the Albanian in the opening round.
Now, Joshua is set to reunite with Ben Davison – a former Tyson Fury trainer who Joshua worked with for his fights against Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin, Francis Ngannou and Daniel Dubois.
However, it is currently unknown whether Davison will be installed as Joshua’s head coach or part of a wider team, involving Golub.
Speaking with The Stomping Ground, newly-crowned IBF heavyweight champion Filip Hrgovic revealed his concerns that Joshua is changing his team too often, when really he should be focusing on rebuilding his own personal self-belief and confidence.
“Anthony Joshua has changed already 20 coaches, I think that it’s not about coaches. I think that he is complicating too much and he has lost that confidence in himself.
“I think that, psychologically, he is not in a good place and obviously he is doing this [big fight with Fury].
“If you are not in a good place with yourself, no coach can help you. He could have Emanuel Steward or whatever coach in history or all of them together and it’s not going to help you, if you are not at a good place in yourself. If you don’t have confidence in yourself.
“He is changing coaches every few months but it is not about coaches – it’s about him.”
Hrgovic then went on to offer his thoughts on Joshua’s clash with Fury, claiming that the Watford-born superstar only has a ‘puncher’s chance’ and that he should retire after the fight.
“He is probably doing this big fight because of financial reasons, but after this fight, I think that he should retire.”
“If he is going to make like a crazy amount of money in his next fight, okay, just do that fight [and then retire].
“There is always a puncher’s chance but if we see his last fight [against Prenga], I don’t give him too much of a chance [against Fury].”
Fury vs. Joshua takes place on Friday, December 11, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with the event broadcast live on Netflix.
