After a heavy defeat last month, Anthony Joshua has been warned by his former opponent Otto Wallin to steer clear of a rematch with Daniel Dubois.
The boxer dubbed ‘Dynamite’ powerfully brought Joshua down four times, culminating in a stunning fifth-round knockout that allowed him to hold onto his IBF belt. Despite the one-sided bout, Joshua remains undeterred.
Post-fight, he expressed a desire to continue in the ring: “You’re probably asking if I still want to consider fighting. Of course I want to continue fighting,” said Joshua. “We took a shot at success and we came up short. What does that mean now? We’re going to run away? We’re going to live to fight another day. That’s what I am. I’m a warrior.
“Always walk with your head high. We rolled the dice for the third time. There have been 13 world-title fights and not every one of them has been successful, but every one has been fun and entertaining.”
Acknowledging the slim margin for error at this level, Joshua also showed sportsmanship towards his opponent, “There were a few mistakes in there but that’s the name of the game,” he added. “Fine margins will cost you at the top level. Also before I finish, we have to give credit our opponent Daniel.
“When I sign up to fight opponents, I don’t really like them in my head any more. But now that it’s done, I take my hat off to him and say well done.”
Wallin, the formidable Swedish heavyweight who previously faced Joshua in the ring, has now voiced his opinion regarding a possible rematch between AJ and Dubois. The two clashed in an epic battle back in Riyadh, December 2023, which saw Joshua deliver a powerful performance.
However – as per reports from The Mirror – Wallin doesn’t see a compelling argument for Joshua to step back into the ring with ‘Dynamite’ Dubois unless he is confident of victory. Reflecting on how readily Dubois landed punches on Joshua, Wallin suggested that defensively, Joshua might not have been prepared for Dubois’ prowess.
Speaking to Boxing News, Wallin offered his blunt advice. “I wouldn’t advise for it. For now, I don’t see a reason for it. The easy answer is to say no, he shouldn’t rematch,” he said.
Despite being impressed by Dubois’ display, Wallin pointed out a critical error made by AJ during the heavyweight scrap for the IBF strap. “Dubois did a really good job,” added Wallin. “With Joshua, I felt like he was caught off guard.
“He never got into the fight. That was Dubois’ night. That he came out and was able to hit Joshua so easy.”
“When I fought Joshua, he had good defence. I felt it was hard to hit him, but Dubois landed everything. He had his hands really low, which surprised me, and he had his chin up in the air also.
“He wasn’t able to use his footwork as well. It looked like Joshua had been working on countering and I though like they thought it was going to be easy to hit Dubois because we saw in the [Filip] Hrgovic fight that he got hit with a lot of 1-2s. I think they figured that Joshua was going to be able to land pretty easily.”
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