Anthony Joshua explains boxing absence, fires defiant warning to heavyweight division

Yahoo

10 hours ago

FRAMELESS, LONDON – As the assembled guests gathered around the door, having been ushered in for the main event of the evening, a murmur started to go around. Anthony Joshua was running a little late.
The last time this happened in London, Joshua had been caught in traffic near Wembley Stadium and arrived with less time than was ideal to run through his pre-fight rituals on Sept. 21, 2024. A short while afterward, he was brutally dropped three times before being knocked out by Daniel Dubois.
Advertisement
The sensory overload at Frameless on Marble Arch – a self-described immersive art experience – is not anywhere nearly as painful.
Joshua was in town for an event staged by his promoters, Matchroom, with new branding unveiled by the Eddie Hearn-fronted company. He took part in a brief Q&A alongside British boxing icon and former WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno and teenage amateur sensation Leo Atang, who will make his professional debut on the Jack Catterall vs. Harlem Eubank undercard in Manchester this Saturday.
MORE:Will Anthony Joshua retire? What AJ should do next after Dubois demolition job
It was a very deliberate past-present-future framing, and some observers might suggest it is charitable to grant Joshua — who turns 36 in October and has not boxed since the Dubois debacle — the middle description.
Advertisement
Long-time rival (regrettably, only outside the ring) Deontay Wilder returned to action with an underwhelming win over Tyrrell Herndon last weekend. Would-be rival and relentless motormouth Jarrell Miller has claimed Joshua turned down the chance to fight him four times over the past month.
Blocking Miller's number after the second or third call feels a more plausible turn of events, but, not for the first time in his career, Joshua has allowed others to do the talking and shape narratives without his input.
The former two-time unified heavyweight champion has recently posted on social media, documenting encounters with an adoring public during trips to Nigeria and Ghana after he underwent elbow surgery to fix a nagging injury in May. While Joshua was keen to keep his cards close to his chest on Tuesday, he acknowledged rest and recuperation have been his primary focus for the first time since being crowned Olympic super heavyweight champion in August 2012.
"This [boxing] is my life," he said. "But what I've done is I took a year out for the first time in 12 to 13 years as a professional, not including the amateur stuff
Advertisement
"I took a year out to get my body right. I'm at a different stage of my career. I can look at time differently. I haven't got all these years in front of me, so I've got to make an executive decision over what I do next."
Gently nudged to offer any hints on opponents, Joshua refused to play the game aside from giving a personal statement of intent.
"The minute I come back, I'm coming back with a bang rather than just keep rolling through, going through the motions," he added.
"Let me take some time, and, the time I do come back, I'm coming back fully active and ready to go, take the division by storm."
Francis Ngannou is KO'd by Anthony Joshua
Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
Advertisement
Hearn would no doubt bristle at the suggestion — right as he is to point out that Matchroom has always trodden its own path since he dragged the family business back into the fight game 15 years ago — but it was hard not to view Tuesday's rebrand as a defiant move in response to boxing's centre of gravity having shifted to Saudi Arabia.
Turki Alalshikh found a willing ally in Hearn as he plotted his takeover of the sport, but now he's handed the keys to the September megafight between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Terence Crawford to UFC supremo Dana White.
White has flirted with involvement in boxing several times before now, not least when he sounded out Joshua for a move away from Matchroom, with whom he made his professional debut in 2013. "If you want loyalty, buy a dog," Barry Hearn's erstwhile promotion foe Micky Duff once quipped. Joshua does seem to be a genuine exception to that rule in this "crooked business" — AJ's label and one that Bruno nodded along with in rueful agreement.
"The Hearn family hold their name really well. That's the reason that I went with them," he said. "I stuck with them, and I'm still with them today."
He makes it sound like a fairytale. It remains to see whether Joshua's booming right hand has one or two more magical stories to reveal.