Anthony Joshua has hit out at Tyson Fury for taking encouragement from Daniel Dubois’s performance against “AJ”, as the former world heavyweight champions slowly prepare to square off.
Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, are contracted to fight each other at an unknown date later this year, but Joshua must first get past Kristian Prenga on 25 July.
Ahead of that bout in Saudi Arabia, Joshua took part in a press conference with his Albanian opponent, 35, in London on Monday. But beforehand, Joshua spoke to The Independent and other outlets about a range of topics.
Fury was one such topic, as it was put to Joshua that the “Gypsy King” recently made comments about Dubois’s 2024 knockout of AJ.
Fury said last month: “Dubois fought ‘Big Baby’ [Jarrell] Miller, stopped him, never put him down. Then he fought [Filip] Hrgovic, stopped him, never put him down. He fought [Fabio] Wardley […] stopped him, never put him down. He hit [Oleksandr] Usyk with some big bombs, never put him over, but yet he fights Anthony Joshua and pummels him, puts him to the floor five times.”
Dubois in fact dropped Joshua four times in their bout, while AJ was ruled to have slipped in a separate moment. In any case, Fury continued: “I’m not saying Anthony Joshua’s chinless, but they’re the facts. Take it as you wish and as you will. Everybody else never went over, not a singular person – Big Baby Miller, Hrgovic, Usyk or Wardley, but Joshua goes down five times. Chinny, get up!”
Joshua responded on Monday by saying: “I just felt like, as a boss, you can’t ride the next man’s success. It’s Dubois’s success. How are you sitting there thinking that, because Dubois had success, ‘Yeah, that’s what part of what I’m doing’?
“It shows the type of mentality that he has. That’s not a boss; a boss is gonna create his own lane and talk about what he’s done and what he’s achieved.
“We could all talk about what [Francis] Ngannou done to him, we can talk about what Usyk done to him, we can talk about loads of comparisons. But for him to talk about Dubois’s success and use it as his own, shows me that he’s a d***-rider.”
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Joshua was referring to Fury’s 2023 bout with Ngannou, a mixed-martial-arts champion who had never boxed professionally before taking on Fury. Ngannou dropped the Briton and arguably should have been declared a decision winner, but he ultimately lost on points – and was then KOed by Joshua in 2024. Later in 2024, Fury twice lost to Usyk on points, just as Joshua did once in 2021 and once in 2022.
Joshua has in fact been training with Usyk in Ukraine in recent months. When asked whether he had learned any tricks from Usyk on how to beat Fury, Joshua said: “I’ve fought Alex, and he didn’t need to do that with me. What I’m saying is, what Alex does to Fury… we’re all different characters.
“Maybe [I’d ask about those things], but… I know he read Fury’s book before he fought him, and you learn a lot about someone when you get to understand their psyche.
“So yeah, I will definitely look at Fury’s psyche, but my true battle is in the ring – it’s not in a press conference. Yeah, I will [buy his book]. I’ll get someone to nick it!” Joshua laughed.
Fury is eyeing his own warm-up fight for his clash with Joshua, having expressed a desire to box in Dublin on 1 August. He last fought in April, outpointing Arslanbek Makhmudov in Tottenham, with Joshua watching from ringside.
Meanwhile, AJ’s last outing was a December stoppage of YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in six rounds. Ten days later, Joshua survived a car crash in Nigeria, an accident that claimed the lives of his teammates Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.
