Carl Froch and Anthony Joshua have had a rocky relationship over the years.
The two British boxing stars first started to clash when Joshua parted ways with former Froch coach Rob McCracken after he lost on points to Usyk in 2021.
Joshua would go on to lose again to the Ukrainian the following year, and after some rebuild fights, suffered his fourth career defeat last time out at the hands Daniel Dubois, where he was brutally knocked out in the fifth round.
However, Froch believes it was ‘AJ’s first ever loss that has caused fragility in the former heavyweight champion. That came against Andy Ruiz Jr back in 2019, where the Mexican-American caused one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing, putting the unified champion down several times before stopping him in the seventh round.
Speaking to BestOnlinePokerSites, ‘The Cobra’ believes ‘AJ’ quit that night and has never fully recovered.
“I’ve always said he’s a bit mentally fragile since losing to Ruiz when he got his soul took away from him that night let’s be honest.
“He quit. It goes down as a technical knockout, that’s never happened to ‘The Cobra’ by the way, which I did tell him, ‘The Cobra’ don’t get knocked out. But he quit on his feet, whichever way you want to look at it he quit on his feet. I’m not going to hold it against him because he stayed with it and he came back.
“He’s tried to be great again but he’s realised he’s not at the level, because every time he steps up to the level he gets asked a question and he gets beat.”
Joshua hasn’t fought since the Dubois fight last year due to injury and is targeting a return to the ring later this year following minor surgery. Fans hope that will come against Tyson Fury, though ‘The Gypsy King’ is adamant that he is retired.
