Anthony Joshua has been told his career has been on the decline ever since knocking out Wladimir Klitschko five years ago.
Joshua is aiming to become a three-time heavyweight champion by winning his belts back against Oleksandr Usyk later this month. The Brit has been on a collision course to rematch Usyk ever since he lost his belts to the Ukrainian last September, with the pair now meeting for a second time in Jeddah on August 20.
Ukrainian boxing promoter Dmitry Salita insists that Joshua is a great fighter, but thinks the Brit's boxing career peaked when he beat Klitschko in 2017. In one of the greatest heavyweight title fights of recent years, Joshua knocked out Klitschko in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley to remain unbeaten and send his opponent into retirement.
Salita thinks Joshua has been declining since the fight, telling BoyleSports Boxing : "This isn’t to take anything away from AJ, he's a great fighter and did some amazing things in his career, but when he beat Klitschko that was the peak of his career. And after that, he's been progressively slipping down just a little bit every fight," he said.
“Ever since the day that AJ was supposed to fight Jarrell Miller but he fought Ruiz, he's been on the way down. Even in his last win against Pulev he looked okay, but he did not look great and did not look like the old AJ.” Joshua lost his heavyweight titles for the first time when he was knocked out by short-notice replacement Andy Ruiz Jr in his US debut, with his original opponent Miller withdrawing due to multiple failed drug tests.
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Salita thinks that regardless of whether Joshua wins or loses against Usyk on August 20, a rescheduled fight against Miller makes sense for him. Miller made his boxing return earlier this year for the first time since his drugs ban, outpointing Ariel Bracamonte in an ironic 'No Drugs' event and stopping Derek Cardenas in Nashville.
“Jarrell Miller needs maybe one more fight to be ready for Joshua. There's definitely some unfinished business," Salita added. "Jarrell has been clean for a significant amount of time, he's VADA tested continuously. I saw Eddie say that Joshua will fight in December regardless whether he wins or loses.
"There's a lot of bad blood between Jarrell and AJ. Unfinished business, that could be the title of the fight. It's the perfect fallback plan if Usyk wins and Joshua needs a monstrous comeback fight in December with global appeal.”
