Anthony Joshua faced a barrage of criticism from former Matchroom Boxing stablemate Carl Froch after his controversial antics after beating Robert Helenius.
AJ looked poor for six rounds but still managed to win the rounds against an opponent who, by his own admission, hadn’t trained for the fight.
Despite the lack of camp, Froch says Helenius managed to damage the face of Joshua significantly. Considering rival Deontay Wilder blasted Helenius out in 177 seconds when he was in top shape, the Briton’s win looked far weaker.
But Froch wasn’t done there. He gave Joshua both barrels despite working with the heavyweight many times before as a pundit.
Anthony Joshua looked ‘scared to throw’
“Style-wise, AJ is like a beginner, like a novice pro. Helenius had absolutely busted up AJ behind the jab,” Froch said on his YouTube channel ‘Froch on Fighting.’
“He looked like he didn’t want to be in there at times. But he was getting outboxed with a weak, poor jab. [Helenius] wasn’t setting it up. He was smashing it, ram-rodding it in AJ’s face.
“Anthony Joshua was sitting back, waiting, looking confused, looking like he was scared to throw.”
On Joshua jumping out of the ring as Helenius lay prone to the canvas, not moving, Froch added: “[He had] swelling under his eyes. His nose was bloody, and his mouth was bleeding.
“We saw when he jumped out of the ring, which was a bit strange. He had a slurp on that nasty Irish stout that Conor McGregor shoved in his face.
“He had all blood and sweat and snot inside that pint.”
Unprofessional behavior
Continuing his rant, Froch also branded Joshua “unprofessional” and “disrespectful” as his erratic post-fight behavior shows no signs of slowing down.
Joshua’s questionable vanity move after losing to Oleksandr Usyk, where he bowed to the Ukrainian and then made the aftermath all about himself, remains one of the most significant talking points about the former champion.
However, most UK media brushes over the behavior – mainly because it’s Anthony Joshua.
But the 2012 Olympic gold medalist does seem to be struggling with his losses and isn’t displaying the same top-end professionalism he used to.
Whether he needs some sports psychologist or someone to peel his layers mentally to find out what’s happening is anyone’s guess. But going into a potential battle with Deontay Wilder, things could get worse before they get better.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay.
