Anthony Joshua warned NOT to fight Deontay Wilder next as boxing legend tells him to first fix ‘issue’
ANTHONY JOSHUA has been urged to swerve Deontay Wilder until he fixes his fear of being caught clean.
A long-awaited grudge match between the former unified and WBC heavyweight champions is being lined up for December.
Boxing fans across the world are salivating at the prospect of the long-time rivals trading blows in a lucrative Saudi showdown, although there are concerns for AJ following his gun-shy display against Jermaine Franklin last month.
And those concerns are shared by boxing legend Roy Jones Jr, who reckons the Brit needs to get comfortable being in the fire again.
The former four-weight world champion told iDBoxing: “It’s a very tough fight for him.
“I love AJ to death and I think he’s a great fighter.
“But his issue right now is dealing with punches coming back at him, so you don’t want to fight Wilder.”
Jones Jr reckons the unorthodox nature of Wilder’s concussive blows makes him one of the worst stylistic match-ups to take at this moment in time.
He continued: “Those punches that will be coming at you from him are different to anybody else in the division, so he’s got to go get that taken care of before he goes in front of Wilder.”
Joshua dominated a dogged and determined Franklin in his return to the win column last month but failed to make an impression in his first outing under new head coach Derrick James.
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And Jones Jr would like the Watford warrior to get a couple more fights with James under his belt before taking on Wilder.
The 54-year-old said: “Sometimes it takes time for a fighter and trainer to get their whole aspect together.
“Apparently, that hasn’t happened straight away, but if they stay together, then maybe they’ll finally get some continuity.
“But they definitely didn’t get any in that first fight.
“Hopefully they get better as they go, it sometimes takes bit of time for things to kick in for a fighter and they get on the same page.
“So hopefully in the next couple of fights they’ll get better and start to gel.
“Because in that fight they didn’t gel much at all.”
Joshua, 33, revealed this past week that his long-awaited showdown with Wilder is seemingly all systems go for December.
When asked by a fan if he’s going to beat Wilder, AJ responded: “That’s what’s happening, you know what’s going on.”
When pressed on the fight taking place in December, he added: “It’s public news we’re getting it down, throwing it down in December.”