British boxing icon Carl Froch has raised doubts about Anthony Joshua's motivation for fighting after an unimpressive points win over Jermaine Franklin last night in London.
The two-time unified heavyweight world champion returned to the ring after two losses to Oleksandr Usyk which ended his run as a title fighter for the time being. And despite fans expecting a highlight reel knockout at The O2 arena, Joshua could only muster up a decision victory.
And Froch, who himself retired on top after beating George Groves for the unified super-middleweight titles at a sold-out Wembley Stadium, is concerned that Joshua may be sticking around boxing for the wrong reasons. The heavyweight has admitted he is solely in the sport for money, which raised eyebrows across the sport in the fight's build-up.
"In the ring at world title level he’s been there, done the business," Froch said on BBC Radio 5Live. "And now I don’t know. What motivates him? We talked about it, he wants the money. I don’t understand why he’s fighting. I just don’t. It’s a dangerous sport. Money can’t be the motivation when you’ve earned over £100million. I've not seen anything in that performance that he wants to be a world champion again."
And in a later video for his own YouTube channel, Froch warned Joshua to avoid a showdown with Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder next after his lacklustre win. The Brit is keen to get back to the world level, and appeared interested in making a Fury bout happen this summer in his post-fight interview.
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“People have asked me tonight, ‘where does he go from here?’ after that performance," Froch said. "Well I’ll tell you where he doesn’t go, he doesn’t go Deontay Wilder, he doesn’t go Oleksandr Usyk, he certainly doesn’t go Tyson Fury, because the top 3 heavyweights, based on that performance for me would destroy him. He needs to up it he needs to get his confidence back.
"He needs to show us something more than what he showed us there. I’m not saying he can’t do it, but I don’t know where the motivation will come from and I don’t know where the desire is going to come from. He’s been a world champion, he’s climbed off the floor to defend his title and he’s looked good doing it but since his loss to Andy Ruiz I just think he’s not been that same fighter.”
Joshua was 2-3 in his last five outings heading into last night, having been stopped by Ruiz in an all-time boxing upset back in June 2019. He retained his belts from the Mexican the following December, but the coronavirus pandemic forced him out for another year at which point he defended against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev before losing his belts and a subsequent rematch to Usyk.
