Anthony Joshua is finished as a boxer after losing his world heavyweight titles to Andy Ruiz Jr, fellow-Briton Tyson Fury says.
Fury, also a previous IBF, WBA and IBO champion, fights German underdog Tom Schwarz in a non-title bout in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
The big Briton said Joshua had shown against Ruiz that he did not want to be in the ring.
“When a man doesn’t want to be there once, he will always do it and it’s hard to come back from,” the self-styled ‘Gypsy King’ said on Wednesday.
“It’s been done many different times by many different fighters. He did it that night and I don’t think he will come back from it. Finished. Ask any top trainer who has been around the sport a lifetime.
“When he got to the ring I saw he didn’t want to be there.”
Mexican-American Ruiz stopped 29-year-old Joshua in seven rounds at New York’s Madison Square Garden in a major upset on June 1.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has said there will be a rematch, probably in November or December, with the venue to be decided.
Fury is also scheduled for a rematch with WBC champion Deontay Wilder, with a date to be set.
The Briton, whose fight with Schwarz is the first of a multi-fight broadcast deal agreed with ESPN in February, is the only boxer Wilder has faced and not defeated.
That was after the pair battled to a draw in December in Los Angeles. (Reuters/NAN)
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