Why does everyone hate Anthony Joshua so much? I get that he isn’t the best heavyweight boxer ever but people claim he’s a no skill fighter but he has an Olympic gold medal, a world championship, and beat Klitschko, a dominant force in boxing
Last Updated: 20.06.2025 15:18
The Sun said it best after Ruiz II:
Larry Holmes, who really was a fighter, was blunt about Joshua:
Josh seems, almost all the time, to be a nice guy and a good ambassador for the sport.
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Of course not.
“Why didn’t Joshua fight Wilder? For my money Wilder would have had his way with Joshua.
The Sun said it best when it wrote after the Ruiz rematch, with Joshua running for his life:
CREDIT PICTURE NEW YORK TIMES
He lunges at feints, and lacks any vestige of counter punching skill
Lennox Lewis said:
What defines the k'vanna of the Book of בראשית?
He has no ring sense, no ability to adapt on the fly
Joshua’s team has tried to hide from any fighter who could challenge him - and he still got beat up by two men with far inferior physical gifts!
His signature win, which his fanboys babble about, is beating a 41 year old has been Wlad Klitschko, who nearly beat Joshua despite being nearly eligible for Medicare.
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“Eddie Hearn talks a lot of hot air as usual. I’ve been offering to fight Joshua for quite a while. I’ve been trying to make that fight happen for the last five years.
“You can teach a guy to jab and parry, you can teach him to hook and slip punches - but how to do each at the right second and do it when you are being hit, well, that you either were born with or not.”
Then, he stepped in with a truly elite boxer, who was also considerably smaller. Instead of using his strength and size to neutralize the boxer’s greater skill, he tried to outbox the boxing master.
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Recently, Joshua repeatedly expressed fears of permanent injury if he kept boxing, telling Men’s Health:
Tommy Fury explains why Joshua never faced Wilder:
“Joshua, not good at boxing, the only thing that he can do is just run around, he's not good at boxing.""
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Read that again.
Before Andy Ruiz and Oleksandr Usyk beat Joshua, both of them had not beaten one single solitary ranked heavyweight.
“Usyk didn't beat (Joshua). He dominated him"
“He [Joshua] knows he doesn’t have the stamina to take a fight to somebody under sustained pressure, and keep that up, because he gasses after about three rounds and then he needs to take three or four rounds off. So he wouldn’t be able to do that against Usyk because Usyk will be on him all the time, making him fight. So I expect it to be awkward, maybe a bit of a chess match for a few rounds. And I expect AJ to run out of ideas, really. If he doesn’t land on him early and get him out of there with big punches, then I see it being a tough night for AJ. Joshua. He’s a one-trick pony.”
“Anthony Joshua is a pussy and is afraid to fight me.
“In boxing, people walk in the gym one way and not many walk out the same way, because of the trauma and the stuff they put their body through. I want my legacy to be, I walked out healthy. Imagine me at the age of 50 or 60 in a wheelchair, fragile because of the trauma I put my body through.
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Against unranked Jermaine Franklin, Joshua went the distance, and showed he remains skittish about engaging, a result of the Ruiz beating.
“No fighter is perfect. A good trainer finds his fighter’s weaknesses, and devises ways to defend them, while finding his fighter’s strengths, and emphasizing those.”
Fury was asked to predict the outcome of the Usyk fight and said:
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Joshua also allowed Dubois to control the pace of the fight, allowed him to fire at will, held his hands low and his jaw high, and leaned back making himself an even better target.
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Fury said of Joshua:
Why are Americans obese? Is it the food or is it the psychology?
In the first Usyk fight, Joshua showed every single one of his weaknesses. Usyk moved inside, as Ruiz had, but unlike Ruiz, possessed the elite footwork to keep Joshua in range, and most importantly, inside Joshua’s right hand.
“Who ever said Joshua can box? He should be beating this guy, he is obviously so much bigger and stronger, but he is also clumsy and can’t box! What a joke? People compared this guy to Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis? Please!”
He picked a fat man, Jerrell Miller, with limited experience. Miller failed a drug test, and Hearn picked another fat man, this one having never beaten a contender, “Fat Andy” Ruiz. Unfortunately for Hearn, the fat man could fight a little, and pounded his chiseled but ponderous champion at will.
When Joshua was preparing to fight in America for the first time, did he face Deontay Wilder, to unite the belts?
Neither of them had ever beaten a heavyweight contender before they upset Joshua.
“it’s not how hard you punch – you’ve just gotta keep hitting that target and, sooner or later, the big bodybuilder [Joshua] will fall apart at the seams, like an old, cheap cushion, falling to bits, all the bits falling off it. And he runs out of ideas quite quickly as well, Joshua. He’s a one-trick pony.”
“he can’t box.”
Joshua has solid fundamentals, with a good understanding of footwork, hand placement, movement, and mastery of all the punches.
Jack Blackburn, Crown Prince of Trainers, once said:
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Andy Ruiz Jr. said after the rematch with Joshua:
Joshua only won the rematch by running for his life with the even Fatter Andy huffing and puffing in pursuit.
“if you get beat by a bum, you are a bum yourself.”
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Fury also said bluntly:
Instead of playing to his strengths, his size, his obvious physical strength, solid right punching power, instead of forcing a master boxer to survive a mauling, Joshua instead tried to fight Usyk’s fight and outbox him.
Bernard Hopkins said once:
What are some ballbusting stories?
And that Joshua did not do.
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Josh has plenty of discipline and courage, but he just somehow has missed connecting the mental dots to be a great fighter
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And Joshua was not born with that instinctive boxing ability.
“Boxing 101 - Usyk!
But in the end, the smaller man was the better fighter. As he tired, Joshua stopped bending over and stopped his aggressive jabbing - and he lost again.
Roy Jones said:
Fury predicted exactly what happened.
Fury also said that he has been offering to fight Joshua for the last five years. He claimed that Joshua’s promoter has been speaking a lot of “hot air.”
“It’s going to be a left hook to the temple, and you’re going to see him doing a Bambi dance all over the ring. Have the guts to step up to the plate and get flattened, son!””
“Joshua isn't a fighter, he didn't even look like a boxer.”
Tyson Fury said over and over Joshua is a highly limited one trick pony
I don’t know any fans who hate Anthony Joshua, and only a few who dislike him. He doesn’t get in trouble, beat women, or cheat fans like Fury or Mayweather.
Finally, his worst weakness, a tendency to rush into exchanging once hurt, manifested itself yet again,
“Joshua can’t outbox a guy with 350 amateur fights. He has to use his physical advantages and make it a rough night for Usyk.”
CREDIT TO:
Fury also noted Joshua inability to adapt in the ring offsetting his strength and power, saying:
Joshua, while a natural athlete, is not a natural or instinctive boxer
Teddy Atlas (@TeddyAtlasReal) December 7, 2019
In Joshua’s “comeback” fight after the Usyk losses he showed nothing
To put it simply, as Andy Ruiz said:
The other, Andy Ruiz, was the fattest challenger in all history.
Kevin Twomey said:
Mike Tyson says correctly about Joshua:
“It’s been pretty obvious for a while that Fury would box circles around Joshua. Usyk doesn’t have the size but he definitely has the skill to make any unification fight more interesting.”
My favorite comment on this fight came from Twitter:
That tendency to forget everything he has been taught and rush forward got him a good whipping form the fattest champ in history, and a second from the guy who got knocked out by Joe Joyce!
Wilder is not the only fighter the chinny Joshua has ducked. When Eddie Hearn claimed he had been trying to make Wilder and Fury fights, Fury responded:
That says it all…
Joshua is huge and strong, but ponderous; he is even robotic
“that guy could learn some more. He could be taught some more stuff."
Ring for rankings
“He got knocked out by a little fat guy in Andy Ruiz.”
Joshua is big, 6′6″, with a long reach, 82 inches, strong, a powerfully built 237, with natural punching power.
Anthony Joshua is a highly protected fighter, and it came back to bite him, not once, not twice, but three times
True that Andy…and saying that is not hate, it is just the truth. And it is a shame, because Josh could have been more, and seems to be a pretty nice guy to boot.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said:
Joshua has been protected from any real competition his whole career, and other boxers sneer at him.
Against a man with dangerous power, but little defense, Joshua failed to control distance, despite having a 4 inch reach advantage and a harder jab, then failed to adapt when Dubois began whaling on him.
His chin alone would put him back in the all time ranks, and that is if he had ring smarts to compensate for it.
But he does not. He can follow a good fight plan, like he did staying outside with Andy “Moby Dick” Ruiz waddling after him. But if a fight plan breaks down?
Joshua has a solid jab, and a good, hard, straight right hand, but that’s it
As the Mail said:
He lacks hooks, uppercuts, and has no variety on his punches
“Joshua isn't a fighter, he didn't even look like a boxer. He is going to be once again shown that he is nothing more than a ballerina when he goes up against Wilder or Fury…It's so hard to root for him when he fights like this. Dude just stand and fight! Running backwards like he's getting bullied at school.
One of them, Oleksandr Usyk, had two whole fights as a heavyweight, and had never faced, let alone beaten, a heavyweight contender - and he soundly beat Joshua not once, but twice.
The only physical attribute Joshua lacks is that his chin has been proven to be inferior. If it is not fair to label Joshua china chinned, but he certainly is not iron-chinned either.
Luis Ortiz told Ring sneering angrily at Joshua’s cherry-picking and refusal to face top fighters:
There is a good reason Joshua lost to two guys who had never beaten a heavyweight contender
Joshua, as an alphabet champion, twice lost to guys who had never beaten a heavyweight contender.
He lacks anything close to elite boxing skills
Against Ruiz, whose reach is 8 inches less than Joshua’s, instead of staying outside, as he did in the rematch, and running lustily for his life, Joshua stooped down, putting himself in Ruiz’s range and slugged it out with a guy who had far faster hands and a better chin.
His chin is spotty at best
Pointing out that he never lived up to his vast athletic potential is not hating Josh…
Joshua is a one trick pony - but the saddest thing is he has always had the sheer physical ability to be more.
Joshua is certainly brave enough, but he lacks the mental ability to even be a very good fighter when things veer from his fight plan. Joshua completely lack adaptability and ring IQ. He can follow a fight plan to the T, as he proved in Ruiz #2. But he cannot adapt on his own, as he showed in Ruiz #1, he cannot adapt to the unexpected, see again Ruiz #1, and worst of all, his natural instinct is to rush forward and engage.
Roy Jones Jr., who called the Usyk fight, put it this way:
“our era would have dominated the likes of Anthony Joshua.”
In the second Usyk fight, Joshua fought better in aggresively using his jab, bending his knees to give him more power in his punches, and attacked Usyk's body with body shots. In the ninth round, Joshua had Usyk on the ropes and in trouble.
Anthony Joshua has almost all the physical attributes to be a great fighter, except one, and that one alone would keep him out of the top 10. But Mentally? That is another story.
But…
Anthony Joshua is nowhere close to a great fighter.
No one who loses their titles twice to two separate men who had never beaten a heavyweight contender in their careers before they beat Joshua, is a great fighter, and Joshua isn’t.
Joshua also showed his weaknesses yet again against Dubois
What is the truth about Joshua in the real world, not the land of never was?
Manny Steward explained once:
Joshua has weaknesses. His chin is suspect, he has no ring sense, he is somewhat robotic, and he has been gunshy since Ruiz.
Then add in that Josh not only lost to Daniel DuBois, a fighter who got knocked out by human statue Joe Joyce, but Josh got knocked down 4 times…
“A devastating defeat, Usyk is very fit, he's got great feet, he threw a lot of punches. It was a tough defeat. [Joshua] got beat by the better man.”
Usyk used constant feinting turn Joshua into a counterpuncher - and Joshua has no skill at counterpunching. While operating at close distance Usyk relied on his slick defense and head movement to slide away from big shots.
Ouch.
Almost no one hates Anthony Joshua that I know of.
“After being rocked, Joshua resorted to telegraphed punches and reckless exchanges, further exposing himself to Dubois.”
Joshua tried to adapt when he rematched Usyk, but lost again
That was NEVER going to win him the fight.