Tim Bradley believes Anthony Joshua had “system overload” from the pace IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois subjected him to on Saturday night. Joshua didn’t have time to think through the mental software he was taught by the many trainers he had during his 11-year career.
(Credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
Bradley feels Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) has “evolved” technically with all the different trainers he’s had during his career. However, due to Dubois’ pace, Joshua became overwhelmed and unable to figure out which plan to use.
With all the technical information that Joshua was taught, he didn’t have time to cut his mental gears because Dubois had him under fire. Physically, Joshua looked identical to his performance against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
The difference was that when Dubois dropped Joshua, he continued to attack. Klitschko did not do that. When he dropped Joshua, he chose to box and let him off the hook. It was stupid of Klitschko, and he should have won this fight because Joshua was hurt a lot from the sixth to the tenth.
If you put the version of Dubois from last Saturday in a working time machine and transported him to 2017, he would have taken out the Joshua who fought Klitschko.
“AJ has become a little better skillfully. He has evolved through all those trainers. The thing is that when you force a rhythm on him, it’s like a system overload,” said Tim Bradley Probox TVThey talk about how much Anthony Joshua gets confused and cannot think when he is forced to fight at a fast pace as we saw on Saturday night in his fight against Daniel Dubois.
When a fighter constantly changes trainers in the way that Joshua has, it gives him too much knowledge, and they cannot process in the same way if he had been with a coach from the first day. When you only have one coach in your entire career, you know what to do.
“He doesn’t know what to do. He has to react quickly, and he has to make quick decisions,” Bradley continued about Joshua. “I knew that going in. Dubois does very well when he comes forward. He’s very explosive. He’s got that bouncy swing. He’ll bounce and then move extremely fast and close the gap on you.
Joshua’s attitude of needing to change trainers every time he loses came back to bite him, making him unable to deal with a high-pressure situation last Saturday. This wouldn’t have happened if Joshua had stuck with the trainer he turned pro with.
“I thought the fight was won out of the gate. As soon as I saw AJ come out, he had his chin in the air and his hands down,” Bradley said. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘This is over.’ He prepares for him to touch her chin. As soon as this right hand landed, he never recovered from the first right hand.
Joshua seemed to follow his training, Ben Davison’s game plan to use movement, which was ineffective because it allowed Dubois to come after him and unload with full power. AJ never really got his offense going in the first round before getting cut, and was too injured in the remaining rounds to do much.
“He still looked a little like the same AJ, but his chin was in the air. His hands were down. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the way he was trained. However, it was AJ, people. He got fired up, and Dubois got to win, and he showed up.”
It was the 100% refurbished Joshua, rebuilt back to factory specs, that Dubois destroyed. He didn’t win because Joshua was washed up, as some think, but rather because he was facing a man with similar power to Wladimir Klitschko. Joshua would have had trouble with Dubois earlier in his career.
“One more thing. This is the first puncher since AJ fought Ruiz (in 2019). He hasn’t fought anybody who can punch. Think about it. His first real punch, bro. He hasn’t fought nobody that could hit that hard,” Bradley said.
AJ has faced a big puncher, Francis Ngannou, in the last five years since his second fight against Andy Ruiz. However, Ngannou, a boxing novice with one fight under his belt in the pro ranks, had no skills and didn’t know how to use the power he possessed in his fight against Joshua last March. Aside from Ngannou, Joshua had fought no one who could hit, allowing him to do well.
Joshua da Ruiz’s opponents:
– Daniel Dubois
Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
– Oleksandr Usyk x 2
– Kubrat Pulev
