Hrgovic favors Fury over Joshua, says AJ 'should retire' after
IBF heavyweight champion Filip Hrgovic is barely giving Anthony Joshua a chance to beat Tyson Fury ahead of their superfight scheduled for December 11 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
“Anthony Joshua has already changed like 20 coaches. I think it's not about coaches. I think he's complicating things too much," Hrgovic told “The Stomping Ground” during an interview posted recently to its YouTube channel. “He just lost that confidence in himself. I think that psychologically, he's not in a good place. And if you're not in a good place with yourself, no coach can help you.
“He can have any coach in history, or all of them together; it's not going to help you if you're not in a good place. He's probably doing this fight because of financial reasons, but after this fight, I think he should retire.”
There are many unknowns surrounding Joshua (30-4, 26 KOs) heading into the Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) fight, especially after suffering a pair of opening-round knockdowns against Kristian Prenga last time out in July, only to come back and crush the Albanian in the second.
The matchup marked the first for Joshua since surviving a fatal car accident in December that killed two of his friends. Days before the life-altering incident, Joshua plastered Jake Paul inside six rounds.
The victory against Paul allowed Joshua to return to the win column following his fifth-round knockout loss against Daniel Dubois in September 2024. Preceding the fight against Dubois was a four-fight winning streak against Francis Ngannou, Otto Wallin, Robert Helenius and Jermaine Franklin Jr., which came following back-to-back losses against Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022.
Joshua has been training with Team Usyk over his last two fights, and now plans to add former Fury head coach Ben Davison to the team to prepare for "The Gypsy King." Since leaving longtime trainer Rob McCracken in 2021, Joshua has also worked with esteemed American trainers Robert Garcia and Derrick James.
“In his last fight [against Prenga], a guy who doesn't know how to walk properly knocked him down in 20 seconds,” Hrgovic said. “Joshua went down from such a soft punch. I think he should definitely retire after this next fight. But you know, there's always a puncher chance. But after seeing his last fight, I don't give him too much of a chance.”
Oddsmakers favor Fury as well, who's been installed as a -200 betting favorite; Joshua is a +155 underdog.