Johnny Nelson says that if Anthony Joshua should retire if he loses to Jermaine Franklin at The O2 on Saturday; plus former WBO world champion and boxing expert Nelson considers the lessons Lawrence Okolie can take from his win over David Light
Sunday 2 April 2023 10:07, UK
If Anthony Joshua loses to Jermaine Franklin on Saturday he should retire from boxing, says former WBO cruiserweight champion and expert pundit Johnny Nelson.
I'd expect Anthony Joshua to get it done. But Jermaine Franklin is 29 years old, (has had) 22 fights, won 21, stopped 14 of his opponents and in his last fight against Dillian Whyte people say he should have won. But that's questionable.
My big question is this: Anthony Joshua, after losing two fights on the bounce, has had to relook at his confidence to think 'who am I, do I belong here, do I want this?'
For Anthony Joshua that's everything.
Because he's had to go through a bit of turmoil, mentally, emotionally and come to terms with the fact that he's no longer the best fighter, officially, in the world. He's got to get in the queue again like everybody else.
When fighters are in a hard, tough fight, that will tell you how hungry they are. How much do they really want it? For Anthony Joshua when it comes to boxing Jermaine Franklin, he needs to be dominant, he needs to be smart, he needs to be sharp, he needs to work on that self-confidence.
Because he has the ability. Otherwise he wouldn't have been a world champion twice. So he has the ability.
If Anthony Joshua loses, he jacks it in. If he doesn't jack it, he should jack it. Because it's a hard mountain to climb. Especially when you've had the success and the heights that he's had. So he can't afford to lose. That's a must. Then from that, it's confidence building.
We'll see if he really thinks 'you know what, I can eventually become world champion again, I'll fix what I got wrong'. Because he's only been boxing 10, 11 years as a professional fighter. So if he thinks he can fix what he think he got wrong in regards to why he's not world champion, then there's a reason to stick around still chase the guys that are there, one of them has beaten him twice.
Of course there's that lucrative fight that everyone's talking about, which is him and Tyson Fury, which personally, I fell in love with the idea at first but it was teased so much and it never happened.
So I don't even don't want to talk about it.
With Lawrence Okolie what we saw clearly in his win over David Light on Saturday was his vulnerabilities are exposed. But as a world champion he has so much more to still work on, to still develop on. If he can stay world champion and develop alongside trainer SugarHill Steward then he'll be alright.
But for the time being it's going to be dangerous for him. He's got the power. He's got the unorthodox style, but his style needs refining.
It'll take about two or three fights down the line. They'll try to create some distance for Lawrence. Because what Lawrence does, he'll throw a shot and he'll grab, he'll hold. I know it sounds silly as he's a world champion but it's a bit of a novice move to make.
It's a bit of a vulnerable move to make because you can walk into shots. He smothers his opponent where actually he could make a harder job a little easier if he used his height, used his reach, used that power.
Because this young man spars with heavyweights, he's comfortable. He's talking about moving up to heavyweight. He's got the power there, it's just the confidence and self-belief to believe in what he's actually got.
You've got the punch power, you've got the ability, but you've just not got the belief to go with the ability.
I'm honest with you I thought Lawrence Okolie was probably top dog until Saturday night. Then I realised actually Richard Riakporhe could beat this guy and beat him well.
Riakporhe is a dangerous, compact fighter, whose confidence is now matching his ability. So these guys are developing but at world class level.
Here in the UK we're doing so, so well. We've got Chris Billam-Smith as well. We've got fighters that are at the world class level but they're not the finished article. So we've got a good time to look forward to in the regards to the UK division.
