Simon Jordan couldn’t believe what he was witnessing on Saturday night.
Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was dropped four times en route to a shock fifth-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in front of a packed-out Wembley Stadium crowd.
The bookies had Joshua as a 1/5 favourite yet he was no match for his fellow Brit, who dispatched him with relative ease.
As much as Jordan was impressed by Dubois’ destructive display, he was equally as baffled by the way Joshua boxed on the night.
“Well I thought wowzer because of the brilliant performance from Daniel Dubois but I was also pretty stunned by what I saw from Anthony Joshua,” he said on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan on Monday.
“From the moment he entered the arena, he didn’t look right. He looked like a man walking to the gallows.
“From his statue-esque performance, standing in the corner while Dubois psyched himself into the fight; to some of the advice that I listened to his corner dishing out to him, to the fact that he fought with his left hand on his hip for the entirety of the first four rounds.
“He didn’t get caught by a right hand, he was waiting for a right hand to hit him.
“So I was surprised by the fact that he didn’t seem to enjoy the experience.
“Not from the experience of getting knocked out but from the point of view that Anthony has talked about all these things he lived for [in boxing] and then he walked into auditorium and I thought ‘This doesn’t look like a fella that is in the right mental state for this fight’.
“You can’t take anything away from Daniel Dubois but everyone knew that Daniel Dubois was going to jump on Anthony Joshua…
“I don’t know what he [Joshua] did, whether it is psychological.
“I talked about him having PTSD. Everyone has PTSD if they have bad experiences, if you get knocked out in a fight you’re going to have PTSD.
“So the consequences of Anthony’s journey is that I felt someone could do this to him, I didn’t think Daniel could do it to him but I thought it was available to be done.”
It is unclear where Joshua goes from here, although he is insistent that his career is not over yet.
Matchroom Boxing chief Eddie Hearn claims there is a rematch clause in Joshua’s contract, which he is expected to activate.
However, Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren recently told talkSPORT that there is no such clause in his client’s paperwork.
In the same interview, Warren was quizzed on whether the possibility of seeing Joshua face Fury had now diminished.
Refusing to rule it out, he said: “I don’t know. I think people may still want it, if he comes back and has a win who knows?
“Fury has to face Usyk first in a rematch on December 21, but I fancy him to come through it.
“This division is alive, losers fighting losers and winners fighting winners.”
News Summary:
- ‘He didn’t look right’ – Simon Jordan ‘stunned’ by Anthony Joshua’s performance in KO defeat to Daniel Dubois and says he was ‘waiting for a right hand to hit him’
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