Anthony Joshua’s latest dice-rolling venture in climbing up the heavyweight boxing ranks landed the 34-year-old faceplanted in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London, while Daniel Dubios stood (tall) on both feet and retained the IBF heavyweight title — leaving a clear avenue for Joshua moving forward: retirement.
Joshua was battered throughout five rounds until Dubios delivered the lethal right-handed blow that sealed the deal. Indicators weren’t promising to start the fight as Dubios floored Joshua in the first, third and fourth rounds, suggesting Joshua didn’t even belong in the ring with the 27-year-old who’s strived to prove himself as a legitimate heavyweight champion. Watching Joshua from start to finish was like watching Kevin Garnett, not with the Minnesota Timberwolves, not with the Boston Celtics, but with the Brooklyn Nets. Fluke notions surrounding Dubios, meanwhile, went out the window — at least for now — and Joshua, a former two-time unified WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight champion, has remained on thin ice, battling to regain composure in the boxing ranks after the jaw-dropping defeat of 2019 when Andy Ruiz Jr. became the first fighter to defeat Joshua, which sprung one of the sports all-time biggest upsets ever. From there, Joshua’s undefeated trajectory of 22-0 took a dramatic spiral, leaving him currently at 28-4 with 25 KOs.
Now, with a career seemingly left in disarray, Joshua, while refusing to take questions after suffering a third loss in his last seven fights, did answer the question on everyone’s mind: did Dubios close the door on his boxing career?
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“Always hold your head high. We took a shot at success and we came up short, unfortunately,” Joshua told reporters Saturday, per Sky Sports Boxing. “We rolled the dice, man, for the third time. That’s 13 world title fights, not everyone has been successful, but everyone has been fun and entertaining. We’re trying to create history for British boxing and I think we’re doing that. … Probably you’re asking do I still want to continue fighting? Of course, I wanna continue fighting. That’s why I said we took a shot at success and we came up short. And what does that mean now? Are we gonna run away? We’re gonna live to fight another day. And that’s what I am, I’m a warrior.”
The likelihood of Joshua flat-out calling it quits was as high as his chances of overcoming the first knockdown to the canvas from Dubios — or second, or third. Joshua’s vulnerabilities, aside from the fatigue and inability to counter the dark cloud combinations from Dubios, leave Joshua cornered by the doubt that first approached him five years ago. Joshua’s failed to detach himself from the warranted doubt, that within the past half-decade, has grown into a convincing case that (1) Joshua’s fallen off beyond reach of a comeback, and (2) retirement, at this point, is the best trigger to pull moving forward.
Of course, there’s option No. 3 which consists of Joshua exercising his rematch clause with Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) — a likely outcome. Barring a miraculous uncovered recovery to dominant form yet to be seen, Joshua can choose to take his victory lap into the sunset with a strong Hall of Fame case alongside him too.
