Teddy Atlas says Anthony Joshua should retire if he is only focused on continuing his career just to get another “150 million” after his loss to Daniel Dubois on Saturday night.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants him to fight Tyson Fury twice in 2025 and possibly rematch Dubois. Those three fights earned AJ a gazillion dollars, adding to his massive fortune. If Joshua loses all three of these fights, he will still make massive money.
Atlas believes Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) was “exposed” in his fifth round KO defeat against IBF heavyweight champion Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs). He says the mistakes Joshua made in past fights and got away with didn’t work against Dubois, and he took advantage of those flaws.
Back to Joshua’s trainers. AJ’s tactics during the Dubois fight were ones he had practiced on sparring partners during training camp. Joshua’s trainer Ben Davison should have known he wasn’t going to beat a wrecking machine like Dubois who was going to fight passively or by throwing uppercuts.
“You have to decide, ‘Do I retire?’ He doesn’t need to fight again. Ricky Hatton said he should retire. I agree with Ricky if it’s just about getting another 150 million pounds,” said Teddy Atlas on his YouTube channel that Anthony Joshua needs to retire if he is only fighting for money.
Joshua’s fans believe that he should not retire because they feel that his defeat was not a big deal and that he can continue to enjoy success if he gets his tactics right. They may be right.
If Joshua fights on the front foot, attacking his opponents with a barrage of punches like he did earlier in his career, there aren’t too many heavyweights who can withstand that kind of firepower. However, Joshua hasn’t fought like this in many years, which makes him vulnerable.
“If that’s it, you’ve had enough. Go off into the sunset,” Atlas said of Joshua. People love you. But if there is something that keeps you awake at night, then you have to fight for yourself again. Otherwise, no.”
There is too much fan interest in a match between Joshua and Fury for AJ to retire now. It’s more than money with Joshua; he wants to compete to show that he can still win at the highest levels. Joshua will need a better coach, and it doesn’t look like he’s interested in making changes to his team after his loss to Dubois.
“Joshua has been exposed. If you go back, you will see what you did wrong and what you did wrong in the past. Even if you ran away, it is still wrong. It has to be corrected. If you correct it, maybe you can come back and do something great again,” Atlas said.
