Deontay Wilder believes Anthony Joshua has a stamina issue which affected him in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua travelled to Saudi Arabia looking for redemption against Usyk last month but he was outpointed once again, falling short to a split decision defeat. 'AJ' showed vast improvement since the first fight and looked as if he was going to close the show in the ninth round when he hurt Usyk with a barrage of heavy artillery.
However he ran out of gas and Usyk was able to win the final three rounds and cement his status on the scorecards. Wilder believes Joshua may well have been cautious to avoid a repeat of their first fight only to lose anyway.
“[ Anthony Joshua ] has a serious stamina problem," Wilder said when assessing Joshua's recent defeat to Usyk in an interview with ES News. "We know he would be very cautious of what happened before and, as you see, it was very cautious of him throwing punches and different things like that. So the best man won that night. Joshua did exactly what we expected him to do and run out of gas."
Joshua was clearly frustrated with the outcome of the result after the final bell and stormed out of the ring after failing to have his hand raised. Upon returning he launched into an X-rated blast which has since been analysed by many inside the sport.
It is expected the heavyweight will return to the ring in December as he faces a significant rebuild if he is to return to challenging for world titles again. A number of big fights remain for Joshua despite his defeat including a rematch with Dillian Whyte and a potential fight with Wilder in the future.
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Prior to Joshua's second defeat to Usyk, Eddie Hearn claimed he had made a significant financial offer to Wilder for a fight but had been left without a response. Joshua and Wilder held talks to face each other for the undisputed titles back in 2018, but a showdown failed to materialise with Joshua rejecting an offer worth $50million.
Wilder has claimed Joshua didn't want the fight but is happy to explore the option of rekindling their rivalry if it arises again. Everybody picked me to beat Joshua and that’s the reason why they [Joshua's team] didn’t want to make the fight before," Wilder said during an interview with ES News. "That was the reason why they took me on a six-month rollercoaster, because they did everything to avoid the fight [with me].
"They did not want to fight. Fast forward years and now we’re seeing it [the Joshua team wanting to make the fight with Wilder]. We’ll see [if it happens] because we ain’t bull*****ing. I hate talking about those guys because they put a bad taste in my mouth every time."
