Anthony Joshua continues to feel the repercussions from his humiliating 12 round unanimous decision loss to Oleksander Usyk from last September in London, England.
In perhaps the unkindest cut of all, the World Boxing Association has dropped the former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) to #5 in their heavyweight boxing rankings, BELOW #4 Hughie Fury.
You know it’s terrible for Joshua that he’s ranked below Hughie and Michael Hunter. The double whammy of Joshua losing to Usyk in 2021 and the unheralded Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019 has resulted in his demotion.
Can Joshua be refurbished?
Poor Joshua will be fighting for his career when he faces Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) in an expected rematch in early 2022.
Countless people have already warned AJ against taking the second fight with Usyk, but he’s stubbornly facing the Ukrainian anyway.
It hasn’t registered with him that he’s not good enough to beat this guy, so he’s going to ignore the warnings that fans have given him and face Usyk again.
WBA’s top 10 rankings:
1. Daniel Dubois
2. Michael Hunter
3. Robert Helenius
4. Hughie Fury
5. Anthony Joshua
6. Deontay Wilder
7. Agit Kabayel
8. Andy Ruiz Jr.
9. Mark De Mori
10. Zhan Kossobutskiy
It would be pathetic if Joshua is dropped from the top 10 of the WBA’s rankings, particularly with them having a badly flawed secondary champion Trevor Bryan.
That’s a guy that most of the WBA’s 10, including Joshua, would likely destroy with ease. It’ll be good once the WBA finishes consolidating their weight classes, so we don’t have champions that are entirely out of place holding a world title like Bryan.
It was the way that Usyk beat Joshua in their fight on September 25th that has led to the WBA demoting him in their rankings to the #5 spot.
You can only imagine how far Joshua will drop in the WBA’s rankings if he loses the rematch with Usyk. A second defeat against Usyk would be Joshua’s third loss in his last five fights.
Joshua’s drop in the WBA’s ranking is the least of his worries. With the way he’s losing so often, it’s clear that he’s no longer an elite fighter and is flawed in such a way that he’s beyond fixing.
As most fans know, Joshua has been scouring the United States, looking for a new trainer to replace his longtime coach Rob McCracken.
Joshua seems to believe that a new trainer will restore him to an earlier stage in his career when he was still winning, looking invincible. Unfortunately, there probably isn’t a coach alive or dead that can bring Joshua back to what he was earlier in his career.
When he was an amateur, fighting in the low 220s, Joshua was an excellent fighter and arguably superior to where he is now. But as a pro, Joshua has hit the weights hard, bulking up to the 240s, and it’s hurt his stamina.