Anthony Joshua has ever needed to choose his opponents so carefully as he does now, when the heavyweight is trying to recover from consecutive losses.
The Olympic gold medalist has been advised by former four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr. to stay away from a fight with Deontay Wilder in the near future.
Joshua, 33, lost consecutive fights for the first time in his professional career and gave Oleksandr Usyk the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO belts. The native of Watford is at a juncture in his career where he is keen to regain some influence in the heavyweight division, while Wilder is also on the mend after losing to Tyson Fury twice in a row.
But Jones has predicted ‘AJ’ could be biting off more than he can chew if he were to pursue a showdown with the ‘Bronze Bomber’, who knocked out Robert Helenius in his October comeback bout. Instead, ‘Superman’ recommended the Briton would be better off taking a tune-up fight against a lower-threat opponent.
“He [Joshua] can’t go into a Deontay Wilder fight after losing two fights to Usyk. That doesn’t make any sense at all,” said Jones in a recent interview with iD Boxing. “Now if you find someone who isn’t quite the puncher that Wilder is, get yourself back and back to winning.”
