With one heavyweight great, Lennox Lewis, telling Anthony Joshua he needs a new trainer, another all-time great from the heavyweight division, George Foreman, is telling the former WBA/IBF/WBO champ that he might need a new manager – with “Big George” offering his services. Speaking with TMZ Sports, the legendary two-time heavyweight king (1973 to 1974 and 1994 to 1997) said he is ready and willing to help Joshua rebuild from his crushing upset loss to Andy Ruiz – “He needs someone like me,” said the 70 year old.
“They’re gonna have to go back to the gym. I think he’ll be a greater fighter, Joshua now,” George said. “If he goes back and gets his mind together. He’s gonna even be better. But right now, he better learn to box and he better get a good manager. I’ll do it. That’s certain. He needs someone like me. If I’m Anthony Joshua’s manager, I say, ‘let sleeping dogs lie.’ I don’t want to fight that guy (Ruiz) anymore, because you don’t know what you did wrong. You go back and you’re gonna do the same thing. Let it slide. Leave Ruiz alone. Let him alone.”
Foreman suggests Joshua can come back better now that he has “the fear of losing,” something he perhaps never had before (although AJ had shown vulnerability in previous fights before the Ruiz disaster, being decked by Wladimir Klitschko and before that being badly wobbled by Dillian Whyte, and at least a few experts felt a loss was always on the cards even if AJ never felt that way himself). But is Foreman right when he says Joshua should not go for that revenge rematch with Ruiz?
On the one hand, as Foreman suggests, a second loss to Ruiz would be disastrous. Yet on the other, would AJ be able to live with himself if he didn’t at least try and avenge his first pro loss?
Joshua has a ton of thinking to do right now, and plenty of people are offering him a ton of advice. Foreman has all the experience in the world, but would he make a good manager for Joshua? It sure would be an interesting partnership if it did come to fruition but no-one knows if it would be a successful one. Don’t you just wonder where Joshua’s head is at right now?
Don’t expect any announcement regarding Joshua’s immediate future for at least a month or so.