ANTHONY JOSHUA will enter the ring this Saturday knowing it could be his last big fight.
The 33-year-old lost his WBA, IBF and WBO world titles in back-to-back defeats by Oleksandr Usyk.
And he has been struggling to sell out London’s O2 for a comeback against American Jermaine Franklin, 29, on Saturday — after six years of packing out stadiums.
Joshua, working under new trainer Derrick James, needs a polished win to get back in the mix with top heavyweights like Tyson Fury.
He agrees with promoter Eddie Hearn that this is his last chance of a rebuild.
Joshua said: “I think Eddie’s right. Because how long can this run go on for, three or four years? And you know how quick time goes.
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“We’re saying this now and we can look back in two years, three years, and be like f***ing hell where’s the time gone?
“So, if I was going to do another run after this, you’re talking about fighting into my forties and I believe boxing is a young man’s sport.
“It takes a real solid character like Bernard Hopkins, George Foreman, Wladimir Klitschko or Alexander Povetkin to go on into their forties.
“But this is a run I want to make successful and then, hopefully, go out on top.”
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Joshua is on his fourth trainer in three fights after decade-long mentor Rob McCracken got the axe following the first Oleksandr Usyk loss, then Angel Fernandez and Robert Garcia failed to gel.
He admits he lost his way in trying to outfox Usyk, 36, and made mistakes in appointing two coaches to do one trainer’s job.
He explained: “It was difficult for Garcia in that camp because he was working alongside someone and he let them be one of the lead voices.
“Angel Fernandez brought on Garcia, he brought him on as like a main assistant, someone with more experience.
“With Derrick James, he’s the main guy, the main voice, so that’s the difference really.
“I’m speaking directly to Derrick. With Angel, it was like, ‘Speak with Angel, speak with Garcia, speak with Garcia, speak with Angel’.
“I was searching for improvement, the fact that I was amateur for three years, then within those three years, you’re talking ABAs, Europeans, Worlds, Olympics.
“Pros, British title, world title, it was always just preparing for a fight.
“So what’s happened now, even though I was winning, I was always like ‘s***, I need to get better because I’m fighting Dillian Whyte, he puts up a bit of resistance, I fight Klitschko, he puts up resistance’.
🥊 Anthony Joshua vs Jermaine Franklin – Date, live stream, TV channel and all you need to know about heavyweight bout
“I started realising that I needed to improve as a boxer.
“So I got on a search and I feel like this coach now is not trying to make sure everything’s perfect.
“He’s like, ‘Just do the right things at the right time — basics, basics, basics’.
“Do the right things at the right time and you’ll be victorious.”
Joshua is angered by how pundits turned on him following consecutive defeats by Ukraine hero Usyk.
But the meltdown he suffered in the Saudi Arabia ring after the Usyk rematch marked a line in the sand where he will no longer hide his emotions.
He added: “It’s been a great run. It’s not a level where I’m expecting a certain amount of love and respect.
When I lost, I was like, ‘F***, I’ve lost that invincibility’
“I did want respect from people in the industry that I admire, legends in the game. And when you’re not a champion any more you feel like that goes away, so that was definitely something I was yearning for — the respect from ex-champions.
“And — when I lost it — I was like ‘F***, I’ve lost that invincibility’.
“It’s all good, we move forward. Obviously, on the night, that was probably not a side people see from me every day, but it is what it is, that’s what’s in me. And if you watch me long enough, you’re going to see all types of s***.”
A new training technique in Texas will lose AJ the Green vote — but he joked old-school sessions are worth the wrath of the eco-warriors.
He explained: “At one stage of my career I believed that strength and conditioning was a massive part of boxing.
“Now I’m a bit wiser and I’ve gone through certain things, I understand that there’s out-of-camp conditioning and there’s in-camp conditioning.
“I was looking at the old-school techniques, how people used to train, and chopping wood was a big part of so many fighters’ regimes.
“It makes great Instagram content, as you’ve seen, so maybe you’ll be seeing a bit more of that, chopping wood is a great exercise.
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“Obviously the environmentalists aren’t too happy because we need to save our trees.
“But — at the end of the day — I’ve got to kick someone’s a*** and that’s what matters to me.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
