Anthony Joshua lagging among Big 4 heavyweights, but partnership with trainer Derrick James offers hope
In the last decade, there have been four heavyweights who have stood significantly above the rest. All four will one day be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Three of the four have had multiple stints as a heavyweight title-holder. Combined, they have a 121-5-2 record with 101 knockouts.
Eliminating the five bouts members of the group have had against each other, they’re 117-1 with 99 KOs. That’s remarkable dominance over a lengthy period of time.
It’s hard to argue that in the last 10 years, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua haven’t separated themselves a significant distance from the rest of the field.
At one point, Joshua seemed poised to be the most dominant of the group. He’d won the gold medal for the United Kingdom in the super heavyweight division at the 2012 London Olympics. He started his career 22-0 with 21 knockouts. He won a heavyweight title belt in his 16th bout and unified it in his 19th by stopping Wladimir Klitschko, a future Hall of Famer.
After that bout, he would have been favored against any heavyweight in the world.
It’s 2023, six years and four months since he defeated Klitschko in that rollicking bout at Wembley Stadium on April 29, 2017, and Joshua has come back to Earth.
If boxing experts ranked the four men on their complete careers now, the one certainty is that Joshua would be No. 4.
He shows a vulnerability that none of the other three show. Fury is 33-0-1 and Usyk is 20-0. Both of Wilder’s losses were KOs at the hands of Fury, but those were hard, grinding brutal fights. And Wilder scored four knockdowns in those bouts.
Then there is Joshua, who will return to the ring Saturday at the O2 in London, England, in a bout streamed on DAZN, when he faces Robert Helenius. Helenius is a late replacement for Dillian Whyte, who was yanked from the bout after allegedly failing an anti-doping test.
Joshua is 3-3 since that 22-0 start and no longer shows the confidence in the ring that he once did. He was knocked out viciously by Andy Ruiz on June 1, 2019, and then lost a pair of decisions to Usyk when he was thoroughly outboxed.
He’s hired the estimable Derrick James to train him, and if there is anyone in this world who could tear him down and build him back to the top, it’s James.
That, though, is a tall task even for a skilled trainer like James. In recent bouts, Joshua often looked unsure of himself and even with as much talent he possesses, that’s a big issue to overcome. Pro athletes who lose their confidence often spend the rest of their careers searching for it.
Joshua is not only physically imposing at 6-foot-6 and around 245 pounds, but he’s highly athletic and intelligent. Joshua is unlikely to be one of the many who earns a fortune in boxing only to squander it in a few years.
Because he’s smart, he understands how good his rivals are, and the risks they present. He’ll know that Wilder knocked out Helenius at 2:57 of the first round on Oct. 15, 2022, in Brooklyn, New York, and that he’ll be judged against that performance when he meets Helenius on Saturday.
Joshua, though, is saying all the right things. He seems unbothered by Whyte’s issue and isn’t concerned that all of his training was for naught.
“Late replacements aren’t ideal, but it’s the third time it’s happened,” Joshua said. “A long career will present these types of obstacles and I’ve just got to get used to them, it’s just another rock in my shoe to the top of the mountain.”
He sparred with Helenius, so he has an idea of what to expect, but these are the types of fighters elite star-level athletes have to win handily, even given the circumstances Joshua faces.
Helenius fought just a week ago — he stopped Mika Mielonen in the third round on Aug. 5 in Finland — and he’s not nearly as athletic, as quick or as powerful as Joshua.
Joshua went through his camp with James working on improving his own game, so he said he’s at ease with the late replacement.
“The principles remain the same: Worry about myself,” Joshua said. “Robert and I sparred years ago. We’ve shared the ring, but I’ve sparred with so many styles, competed with so many styles, and the objective remains the same: Victory, and victory by any means.
“There’s no overtime in boxing so I have to be on my A-game and inflict pain to get the victory.”
He’s all but certain to get it Saturday, but how will he fare if long-hoped-for bouts against Fury and Joshua are made down the line?
He’d be a significant underdog, for sure, and it seems obvious at this point that Fury could easily outbox him. Wilder likely could blow him away with his punching power.
Joshua needs to get back to whatever was working in the last decade. It’s mostly confidence and that’s the toughest to rebuild.
James likes what he’s seen and said, “It’s all about the process. He’s bought into that process and he’s getting better and better.”
He’s Hall of Fame bound for sure, so by that standard, he’s had a brilliant career. But for a highly competitive guy in an era of outstanding heavyweights, there is something missing.
That’s what Joshua will be trying to find as he makes his way down the homestretch of a very good, and potentially excellent, boxing career.
