Terence Crawford says he has doubts whether Anthony Joshua can come back from his fifth-round knockout loss he suffered against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on Saturday night.
The WBA junior middleweight champion Crawford feels that Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) has been in “a lot of wars” and has wear and tear from his 11-year professional career. While Crawford does believe that Joshua could possibly come back, it’ll be difficult.
Crawford, 36, is a little older than the 34-year-old Joshua, and he’s now showing his age as well in his last fight. Although Crawford didn’t get knocked out, he came close to losing to his last opponent, and he’s now given up on his goal of becoming undisputed champion at 154.
Regarding his loss to Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs goes. Crawford thinks Joshua made a mistake by getting overconfident and going for the kill after hurting Dubois in the fifth round with a big right hand. AJ abandoned his fundamentals and walked into a powerful right hand from Dubois, knocking him down and out.
“I don’t know. Joshua has been in a lot of wars. He fought a lot of great fighters. I think he can, but it’s going to be tough because he had a lot of wear & tear on his body coming into this fight,” said Terence Crawford to the media when asked if Anthony Joshua could come back from his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois tonight.
Joshua has never had great punch resistance in the first place, but his promoter, Eddie Hearn, has been clever with the way he’s matched him. He fought Wladimir Klitschko when he was 41.
The other fighters Joshua fought with power were lesser heavyweights like Andy Ruiz, Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev, Carlos Takam, Francis Ngannou, Dillian Whyte, and Charles Martin.
“It was a great fight. I think Joshua got overconfident [in the fifth round]. He [Joshua] hurt him with a shot, and went for the kill, but he forgot bout his defense and forgot about the fundamentals,” said Crawford.
Joshua kind of had to go for the finish when he had Dubois hurt in the fifth because Daniel had dropped him in the first, third, and fourth rounds. He had to try his best to finish Dubois in the fifth because it would have been too risky to fight cautiously and miss out on the chance.
“I don’t know,” said Crawford when asked where Joshua goes from here. “Not at all. I always said the better man was going to win today, and Dubois was the better man. He capitalized on Joshua’s faults, and he won the fight.
“He [Dubois] came to fight. You could see it in his eyes, and he wasn’t leaving out of the ring without that victory.
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