As Anthony Joshua stood in center ring waiting for the judges to render their decision on his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, the two-time unified heavyweight champion’s expression was laced with exhaustion and tension.
Joshua had poured his heart and soul into the rematch and the announcement that he had failed to regain his titles from the brilliant Ukrainian triggered an emotional response from the two-time unified champion.
During a chaotic post fight sequence, a clearly frustrated Joshua loudly asked the smaller but skilful Usyk just how he had beaten him and declared that “I don’t care about being strong, I have to have skills. Being strong doesn’t win boxing.”
What looked like a spur of the moment outburst from was anything but. Joshua took those thoughts with him into an eight month break from the sport and set about reinventing himself.
Sixteen months have passed since that night. Joshua, 28-3 (25 KOs), has rebuilt his career and, at 34 years old, he believes that he goes into his upcoming fight with IBF heavyweight champion, Daniel Dubois, 21-2 (20 KOs), as a much more well-rounded fighter.
“I always felt I could hurt people but the thing is, in a heavyweight fight, anyone can. That’s what makes the heavyweight division so exciting. It’s one of those divisions where you don’t want to blink because anything can happen at any time so it wasn’t so much, ‘Can I do it?’ it was like, ‘How good am I?’” Joshua told DAZN.
“Let’s say I meet someone who can take one of my main attributes, which is strength. Let’s say he can take that, what else do I have to offer? I went and explored ways to improve as an all-round athlete.”
Joshua’s voyage of self discovery took him to Texas where he trained with Derrick James for his comeback victories over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius and then to Ben Davison’s Performance Centre in Harlow where the team got him ready for his conclusive victories over Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou.
Slowly but surely he has righted the ship. Boxing his way past Franklin, breaking down and knocking out Helenius, dismantling Wallin and blasting through Ngannou.
Considering just how easily straightforward Joshua made beating Ngannou look, the 34 year-old’s decision to pinpoint his second round demolition of MMA superstar as proof positive that his rehabilitation was complete will raise some eyebrows.
Although Ngannou performed miracles to take Tyson Fury to the wire last October, in boxing circles at least, Joshua was expected to deal with the boxing novice in conclusive fashion although the way he held his feet and committed to such hard, straight shots so early in the fight did point to his restored confidence.
“I always look at the Ngannou fight. He was a juggernaut,” Joshua said. “He was massive and I thought to myself if I only depended on strength it would have been a lot tougher fight but due to the fact that I went through a process where I tried to improve my I.Q, I was able to dispatch Goliath in quick fashion.
“I’m not saying he was an elite boxer but I just took it on the premise of what he’d done with Tyson Fury who was the current WBC champion. He gave Fury one of his toughest nights in the ring so I thought, ‘This guy knows what he’s doing.’”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79
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