Eddie Hearn has admitted to talkSPORT that Anthony Joshua is ‘hurting’ after his devastating defeat at the hands of Daniel Dubois.
Joshua was knocked out by his fellow countryman in front of a capacity crowd at Wembley Stadium in September.
It marked the fourth defeat of his professional career and his most damaging to date, with Dubois dropping Joshua four times en route to the eventual fifth-round stoppage.
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Several members of the boxing fraternity called for the two-time unified heavyweight champion to hang up his gloves immediately after the contest.
However, AJ came out a couple of days later and insisted he would continue fighting.
And according to Hearn, his future was never up for discussion.
Asked if Joshua ever considered retiring during an appearance on talkSPORT‘s White and Jordan show on Thursday afternoon, Hearn replied: “No, never, never.
“One because physically he feels good and he’s looking good.
“But also because when you suffer a loss like that the decision is not, ‘Shall we retire?’ It’s now about, ‘How do we look when we come back?'”
That isn’t to say that Joshua didn’t battle his own demons though.
“Honestly, I think after a fight like that, he is a very brave faced guy publicly, he wants to show you how to accept defeat humbly,” Hearn added.
“And I think a fighter off the back of a defeat a couple of weeks after they are generally okay.
“They go back to the gym, everyone is giving them a pat on the back and they are okay.
“But I would say he has struggled if I am honest. I always say to a fighter, ‘I want you to struggle, I want it to hurt really bad’.
“I don’t want AJ to go, ‘Oh well,’ and he’s never going to be that type of fighter.
“Yeah, he is hurting. He took a pasting at times in that fight and I think he has got his back up and he wants to come back stronger.
“I don’t think it is ever easy. The reason this sport is so compelling is because you are on your own in there.
“When you are scrambling on the floor to get up and hang on for dear life, time and time again it is very humbling and probably very humiliating.
“He had to go through that experience. He never stopped trying, he never stopped trying to get up till the point where he couldn’t get up.
“I think he showed a lot of heart but he got well beaten and he needs to go back and work out why.”
When Joshua suffered back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022, he rebuilt his career by knocking over multiple fringe-level contenders.
But Hearn insists that won’t be the case this time around.
In fact, the Matchroom Boxing chief believes there are only two fights left for his client.
“I mean, for us, obviously, talking to His Excellency, if Fury was to win, we have a chance to make Fury against AJ for the unified world heavyweight championship, which will be the biggest fight in the sport,” Hearn continued.
“If he loses, we still have the chance to make AJ against Fury.
“Maybe as a, ‘Go on, boys, go to war for two fights and then maybe sail off into the sunset.’
“Who knows? Or Tyson Fury could lose and you might never see him again. So for us, you know, with the AJ hat on, there’s only really two fights for him in boxing.
“One is a Daniel Dubois rematch and one is a Tyson Fury fight.
“I don’t think there’s interest in us having an interim fight or coming back against this guy in the top 15.
“But how many fights have we got left? Could be one, could be three, but it’s that range.”
