Tony Bellew has made it clear he feels Anthony Joshua shouldn’t retire, despite his agonising defeat to Daniel Dubois last month.
The 34-year-old was floored multiple times during the bout, with Dubois eventually ending the contest in the fifth round.
It was a stunning performance from Dubois, one that has now made the 27-year-old the poster boy of British boxing.
As for Joshua, the Watford-born star has faced calls to hang up his gloves after struggling throughout the blockbuster showdown in the capital.
Boxing news: Tony Bellew doesn’t think Anthony Joshua should retire following his recent defeat to Daniel Dubois
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Bellew, speaking to AceOdds, has now opened up.
The former boxing star, who retired in 2018, has advised Joshua to keep going – while also saying the heavyweight is a ‘victim of his own success’.
“No, because someone like Anthony Joshua, he’s constantly learning, and he’s constantly evolving,” he said.
“He’s a guy with not that much experience. I would put Daniel Dubois in the same bracket.
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“These guys have had so much success, even more so Anthony Joshua. So much success early on in their careers that you’re kind of fast-tracked.
“Maybe not so much Daniel, but 100 per cent Anthony Joshua.
“Anthony Joshua is a victim of his own success. This is a guy who’s won an Olympic gold medal in a record number of fights with so little experience.
“He’s just had an unbelievably good career but there’s been a price to pay for that when he’s come up against vastly more experienced fighters.
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“When you’re fighting the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, who’s had 300-plus fights, it’s very, very hard to find any momentum.
“He’s learned many tricks over the years, and done many different things, that you can’t gain any momentum, and when you do get momentum, he stops it, and he stifles it because his experience leads him to do them things. It’s just so difficult for you because you’re always playing catch-up.
“No matter how much experience Anthony Joshua gets, he’s always going to be playing catch up to the likes of Oleksandr Usyk and that’s just the way it is.
“That’s the fact of boxing, the fact of life.”
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Boxing news: Tony Bellew has backed Anthony Joshua to bounce back following his defeat to Daniel Dubois
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Joshua, for his part, plans to keep fighting.
The boxing star has been here before, of course. He was urged to quit the sport after his defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, as well as after his two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022.
Joshua has no plans to hang up his gloves, however, and is instead eyeing a rematch with Dubois.
Bellew, however, would prefer to see AJ go up against either Zhilei Zhang or Tyson Fury instead.
Boxing news: Daniel Dubois put on a masterclass as he beat Anthony Joshua at Wembley
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He added: “I want to see him face Zhilei Zhang and see how that goes. I think that could have been a brilliant fight.
“There are so many fights out there. I want to obviously see him face Tyson Fury. Do I want to see a third fight with Oleksandr Usyk? Potentially, yes but I made crazy wild statements like, this is the best AJ we’ve ever seen, well it’s AJ, we’ve seen him smoke and blast out everyone.
“I’ve seen him perform absolutely brilliantly against Vladimir Klitschko. I’ve seen him perform absolutely fantastically against numerous fighters and then I’ve also seen him not perform to the best of his ability.”