The former two-time heavyweight world champion was battered from start to finish against Dubois – with Joshua’s trainer now opening up on preparations for the contest
Anthony Joshua’s trainer Ben Davison has revealed that the British star was ‘very late’ to his fight with Daniel Dubois last September.
Heading into the showdown at Wembley Stadium, Joshua was riding a four fight winning streak – which included wins over Francis Ngannou and Otto Wallin. The 35-year-old failed in his quest to become a three-time heavyweight champion after losing to Dubois.
Joshua was dropped multiple times before being stopped in the fifth round. It seemed likely that the pair would go head-to-head in an immediate rematch, but ‘AJ’ suffered some minor injuries in the initial encounter that forced him to take some time away from the ring.
The former two-time world champion was a big favourite going into the contest – with many pondering exactly what went wrong for Joshua soon after the dust-up. In an interview with talkSPORT, Davison explained that preparations for the fight were far from ideal.
“This isn’t an excuse, he’s never mentioned it and it’s not the reason we lost,” he said. “He was very very late arriving to the dressing room before the fight for unforeseen circumstances. It was a major rush which wasn’t ideal. Maybe that had an impact on his ring walk, I can’t say yes or no.
“Again it’s not an excuse, but if what you guys were seeing is true, maybe the fact he was late then that didn’t help. The fights before we had an extremely long warm-up, this time it was the complete opposite. But this time it was a big rush, although it wasn’t why he lost.”
Joshua is looking to return to the ring before the end of the year after having elbow surgery. His promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that his star client could return anytime between October and December. ‘AJ’ is still targeting an all-British showdown with Tyson Fury amid talks of the ‘Gypsy King’ potentially making a stunning return to action.
Hearn himself is still holding out hope that Fury will make a retirement U-turn and fight his star client. The Boxing promoter told DAZN: “It’s probably three fights away. For me, if I’m advising AJ, we’re back this year, we have two Tyson Fury fights, what else is there to do? Maybe fight a Daniel Dubois, but for me once AJ fights Tyson Fury, he’s kind of done it all.
“I’d love him to have another crack at Daniel Dubois and I’d love him to have another crack at Usyk but you just keep going on and on and on. Now, if we get to next year and he’s still firing on all cylinders then 2026 won’t be his last year. But for me, something feels right about coming back this year, beating Tyson Fury twice and then sailing off into the sunset.”
There are still some intriguing match-ups for Joshua and while Davison believes a discussion will need to be held over his next move, he is open to going straight for championship glory once again. “I’m not a massive fan of the ‘everybody needs activity,'” he continued. “It’s not ideal after the injury, it’s hard to say the likes of Deontay Wilder is a tune-up fight. There are discussions that would need to happen, but his goal is to become a three-time heavyweight world champion.”
