Tyson Fury Says Age Caught up to Anthony Joshua on Saturday night to IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois in London. Fury feels that the 35-year-old Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) went up against a much younger fighter, 27-year-old Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs), who can punch.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, had done an excellent job hiding AJ’s age by matching him against beatable opposition in his last four fights after he’d been beaten twice in a row by Oleksandr Usyk. Hearn finally matched Joshua with a talented fighter who could expose his age, and we saw the result tonight.
Initially, Fury brushed off Joshua’s loss, saying it could happen to anyone in the heavyweight division, which is true. However, as he spoke more, he admitted that Joshua’s age played a factor.
It’s not something that the 36-year-old Fury likes to talk about because he’s having the same problems. He lost his last fight to Usyk on May 18th and looked like a shell of his former self in that contest.
There’s an excellent chance Fury will lose the rematch on December 21st and face the same retirement questions as Joshua.
There’s not much Joshua and his promoter Hearn can do about his aging because there isn’t a fountain of youth that he can drink from to make him young again. The only options are to avoid the dangerous guys like Dubois and focus on fighting weaker punchers who can’t replicate what we witnessed tonight.
“It’s heavyweight boxing. [Stuff] happens. You get knocked spark out. It could have been me. In the heavyweight division, it’s what happens,” said Tyson Fury to the media, reacting to Anthony Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois on Saturday night.
Fury came close to being knocked out in his last fight against Usyk and would have likely been had the referee not saved him in the ninth round by giving a standing eight count.
“What went wrong is what always happens in heavyweight boxing. A good right hand on the end of the chin, and that was it. I don’t know. It’s up to the man and whatever he wants to do. If he has good ambitions to come back again, he can make his own decisions. He’s a big boy.
“I thought it was a 50-50 fight. Dubois is a lot younger. He’s 27-years-old. Joshua is 35, the same age as me. Age doesn’t wait for anybody. You get hit with those punches. You don’t see many heavyweights get hit, get knocked down, get back up, and continue on,” said Fury about Joshua.
AJ got back up from the first three knockdowns, but that was more of a case of them occurring late in the rounds. In the final knockdown in the fifth, Joshua couldn’t get back up because he was counted out, and his trainer, Ben Davison, had entered the ring while the referee was still counting.
“I’ve got to fight my man, the rabbit,” said Fury about his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk on December 21st. “I’m going to take all my belts back once again.”
It doesn’t seem realistic that Fury will win his rematch with Usyk. There’s a good chance that Usyk will knockout Fury by following what he created from their last fight by unloading on him with a barrage of punches. If Usyk follows the same plan from the ninth round, he’ll knock out Fury.
I guarantee you. After I fight Usyk in December and beat him, I’ll bring all the belts back that I shouldn’t have never had lost. Then I’ll fight Dubois and take that off him as well. That’s my plan.”
Fury doesn’t have to worry too much because His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has already told him he can still fight Joshua, even if he loses his next fight against Usyk. That’s a load off. If Fury loses, he can come up with a good excuse to tell the fans to explain away the loss, and they’ll still want to see him fight AJ next.
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