Sky Sports analyst and former boxer Johnny Nelson believes Anthony Joshua may retire should he lose to Oleksandr Usyk this weekend.
The fight will take place at Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Super Dome and sees 'AJ' hoping to regain his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles after losing them to former cruiserweight Usyk last year. The Ring Magazine heavyweight title has also been added after Tyson Fury vacated the belt in the wake of his retirement decision.
Joshua has admitted that he was properly prepared for 12 rounds when he last faced former cruiserweight Usyk last year, he lost by unanimous decision to the Ukrainian. He has since replaced his coach Rob McCracken with American former Ring Magazine Coach of the Year Robert Garcia in an attempt to regain his titles.
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The 32-year-old British fighter knows that this is a career-defining fight for him. Should he win, he's back on the apex in the heavyweight division. But should he lose, where does he go from here - who could he realistically face to earn his way back towards a title?
Writing in an article for Sky Sports, Nelson said: "We'll be looking at a completely different animal now because he knows what Usyk is capable of doing and he knows what mistakes he made.
"But if Usyk beats him, I reckon he'll walk away. He's not a backing dancer; it's not in his DNA to want to be hanging on knowing that there's a guy in that division that can beat you. It's a fighter's mentality.
"He doesn't want to hang about to be a backing dancer; he wants to be the best guy. So, therefore with this fight here with Anthony Joshua, it's so important for his career. He knows that this might be the last big fight he's in. It's not in his DNA to stand back and be a gatekeeper for anybody.
Nelson, like many others have stated that Joshua cannot attempt to outbox Usyk as he did in his last fight, but must try his size and strength to his advantage.
He said: "In the first fight Anthony Joshua went out there and thought he could outbox the boxer and he got it so wrong. My old trainer Brendan Ingle used to call it 'three smart'. Now I can be too smart for you but with three smart, you end up outsmarting yourself.
"You look at the success he had, look at Usyk's face after the fight he was in a right state, but in the fight itself Usyk outboxed him, out-moved him, out-manoeuvred him and out-jabbed him.
"Anthony Joshua tried to do that to Usyk to prove something to everybody who doubted him as a good fighter and boxer. He made a gamble, and lost."
