By: Sean Crose
“My next fight is scheduled for December,” Anthony Joshua posted on social media. “Not ideal but everything is part of the bigger picture.” Indeed, the situation is not ideal, although perhaps there is a good reason for it. However, if that is the case, the public is not allowed to know. Joshua’s last fight took place a few weeks ago, leading fans to assume he will be back in the ring sooner than December. However, again, no reason has been given for the delay, so most likely due to injury.
With that said, the former WBA, WBO and IBF world heavyweight champion didn’t look too impressed when he beat Jermaine Franklin earlier this month. Joshua won the match and clearly won, but he didn’t knock out the brave American, which is what the fans clearly want to see. A decisive victory would have been taken for granted if Anthony Joshua hadn’t previously lost two consecutive fights to Oleksandr Usyk, who successfully eliminated Joshua’s belt. The losses left a lot of questions surrounding Joshua, questions that went unanswered in the fight against Franklin and now won’t be answered until December at the earliest.
In fact, it was a difficult year for the towering British tennis player. After losing to Usyk for the second time in a row, he’s seen negotiations fail between him and the WBO and online heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (it should be noted that some people feel full set of facts may be a hoax by Fury). Perhaps the worst part is that Joshua reacted to his second loss to Usyk with a strange, rambling conversation over the mic minutes after the referee gave Usyk the score. Still, it was an emotional moment and frankly shouldn’t define the man.
Not long ago, Joshua was arguably the biggest star in the sport. Only Canelo Alvarez could be more famous (or lucrative). Even losing to Andy Ruiz in 2019 did not falter him. Joshua simply reacted to the defeat by changing his style for his rematch with Ruiz, a strategy that paid off immensely as he defeated Ruiz with ease the second time around. Unfortunately for Joshua, he was unable to win the title back a second time against Usyk last year. However, that doesn’t mean the man should be wiped out. Obviously it will take a while for anyone to be able to say exactly where Joshua is right now in the heavyweight scene.
