The heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is rejecting talk of having weaknesses in his game.
On Saturday night at SSE Arena at Wembley, the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO title holder will return to the ring for the first time in a year to make a mandatory defense against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev.
In his last fight, back in December 2019, Joshua traveled to Saudi Arabia and won a twelve round unanimous decision over Andy Ruiz to reclaim the unified crown.
Joshua believes the critics, and Pulev, are took focused on his TKO defeat at the hands of Ruiz in June 2019.
Ruiz dropped Joshua four times before the contest was waved off in the seventh round.
“Sometimes when things are going well you keep working on your strengths,” Joshua said to Sky Sports. “After my loss in New York? What people call weaknesses, I call strengths that I haven’t identified yet. I saw the strengths I hadn’t identified – what [other people] call weaknesses. I enhanced them, improved them.”
“Now there aren’t any chinks in my armour. I’ve worked a lot on honing my craft. This will be a tough fight but I need to retain my belts. I have a warrior mindset. In my mind, nothing else is important apart from Pulev. That is my focus.”
Joshua’s trainer, Rob McCracken, has noticed some changes with Pulev.
“He is slim, he has lost weight, his fitness levels look good so he might come on the front foot. But he is a boxer who puts pressure on behind the jab. He is a top class heavyweight,” McCracken said.
