“I could see he was going to be good but I could never have foreseen what he was going to do,” Price adds. Price famously knocked Joshua out in their sparring session more than a decade ago, but even then AJ was building up an impressive amateur career which culminated in gold at the London Olympics. Sometimes you’ve just got to trust yourself and let your body go on auto-pilot.” You see him at the end of the round asking trainers what he’s done wrong, it’s overkill sometimes. Sometimes you’ve got to accept you will make mistakes in fights. “He wants everything to be perfect, from my experience working with sports psychologists that’s not really a good trait to have if you’re a sportsman, you’re never happy, never content. “I think Joshua’s main weakness,” Price points out, “is that physically he’s got everything but mentally he’s too much of a perfectionist. That was not the Joshua we saw against Usyk, or even in the second Ruiz fight, when his confidence had been rattled and he could be accused of overthinking. Campbell Hatton, who fights on Saturday’s undercard, told i he expects him to win in “devastating fashion”, now he has “got that killer instinct back, having that dog in him and being a good finisher and a knockout artist”. Those with less of a vested interest in Joshua’s downfall may think differently. He’s an icon for everybody in the UK, but as an elite athlete I believe he’s on the other side.” “I believe all of these performances are due to the fact Joshua has felt very comfortable in life, he did a great job getting himself out of the surroundings he was in – it’s a great story of what boxing does. It’s a tremendous business opportunity but I think he used to do it for the love of the sport. I believe Joshua is doing it because he’s a celebrity. “Since 1 June 2019 he is very good but he’s not elite. Jermaine has to test Anthony, I don’t think Anthony passes the test. “He’s changed trainers – Derrick James is a wonderful trainer, one of the best, but it’s a new relationship – is he going to trust what James is telling him? Maybe yes, but maybe no. “I do not think Anthony Joshua is willing to go to war at this stage of his career,” Salita tells i. Franklin’s promoter, Dmitriy Salita, insists this is “a fight of the mind”, a “100 per cent mental fight”. His challenger does not have to go far when looking for psychological chinks in Joshua’s armour. It’s a risky sport, boxing, your health’s at risk every time you step in the ring, so you need to be compensated.”īoxing Exclusive Franklin will keep his promoter despite filing a lawsuit against him days before Joshua fight Read More Very few people, and I envy them to a degree, don’t really care about money because they’re free spirits and that’s great but not many people have that way about them. “When Joshua said it’s about money, there are fighters fighting for legacy and you take your hat off to them, Tyson Fury, Canelo, they’ve got more money than they’ll ever need,” former heavyweight David Price – and a former sparring partner of Joshua – tells i. If Joshua’s self-proclaimed motivation is true, it is an opportunity for Franklin, a man who has battled bankruptcy and until recently was selling loft insulation. “I like money” – that has become his new mantra, but it is not one that washes with the British boxing public. Consecutive defeats to Usyk have humbled Joshua and altered his focus. The jeopardy really lies in what comes next – whether this is the beginning of the end, or a first step towards redemption.
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