‘He doesn’t want it anymore’ – Carl Froch casts doubt on Anthony Joshua’s future in brutal assessment after Daniel Dubois KO defeat

Carl Froch believes Anthony Joshua should consider retirement after his ‘amateur’ display against Daniel Dubois.

Joshua was brutally beaten by Dubois, being dropped four times en route to a fifth round stoppage upset at Wembley Stadium.

It was a damaging blow for AJ, who has now dampened his chances of fighting Tyson Fury in 2025, and has moved further down the heavyweight pecking order.

Former world champion Froch, who has been embroiled in a feud with Joshua in the past, believes he spotted the issues before the first bell even rang.

He said on Froch Talks Fighting: “Anthony Joshua got absolutely battered from pillar to post. Joshua walked to the ring and he looked nervous.

“He didn’t look confident. I didn’t like the look in his eyes. He was swallowing and he was walking slowly and he just looked nervous.

“Dubois was smiling, Dubois was enjoying himself and from the off I just thought, ‘Hang on a minute, I feel it in the air tonight, I can see an upset coming.’

“I’m not going to take anything away from Dubois and say Anthony Joshua looked terrible. He didn’t look right, he didn’t look like his head was in it.

“That was his sixth stadium fight, that was his third time at Wembley. It was Dubois that should have been the deer in the headlights, the guy that should have been nervous, he should have been the guy to start slowly and have to get going.

“From round one, he was getting peppered with a jab, he was on his back foot, he was bolt rigid, upright, chin in the air, he was doing everything wrong.

“Anthony Joshua got greedy, he backed him up and he went forward for it, threw another right hand, Dubois was poised, he was waiting for him, it was in the corner.

“And if you watch AJ’s attack, it was a novice attack, it wasn’t even amateur level, it was white collar boxing, it was chin in the air, left arm down here and an uppercut from here and as he threw the uppercut with a second class postage stamp on it, let’s be honest, you saw that one coming, the right hand clipped him on the chin and AJ went down.

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“Face first, a*** in the air, little break dance move, come on, I’m not being horrible but that’s no way for no soldier to go out.”

On Joshua’s future he added: “He didn’t recover from those shots. He lacked ambition, he lacked self-belief and confidence.

“His powers of recover are terrible, he looked exhausted. I question Anthony Joshua’s desire to be in that boxing ring anymore.

“Everything was wrong. By round five he looked like he’d ran out of ideas, he looked like a beaten man. Let’s be fair to AJ he came out in round five and had a go, almost like a last hurrah.

“I don’t think AJ wants it anymore, he shouldn’t be boxing. That performance was weak. What next for AJ? I don’t even know.

“This could be see the last we see of Anthony Joshua. I just can’t see a future for Anthony Joshua.”

Joshua was quick to downplay calls to retire after being stopped, insisting he would fight again in 2025.

It depends on what options are available for AJ, with Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn opening the door to a sequel next year.

A fight with bitter rival Tyson Fury cannot be ruled out, despite the ‘Gypsy King’ appearing to feel he had lost out on a potential showdown.

His future will likely be clarified following Fury’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk which takes place on December 21.