He's 34 years old. That's on the sunny side of the hill. I think he was riding high off acclaim for the Ngannou fight and didn't prepare for DuBois like he did for say...Wlad. Not saying he pulled a Fury and spent most of his time drinking, snorting coke and banging hookers, but I suspect he thought it was gonna be easy because it's what the boxing world thought and so the intensity was lacking until the last round of the fight.
Yeah that soft touches run of fights he was being celebrated for left him badly unprepared for Dubois. Nngannou to Dubois must have felt like such a massive shock.
If he didn’t prepare properly for Dubois then frankly he deserved exactly what he got. You don’t mess around when that sort of guy is your opponent.
Big George walked away from the sport for 10 years, from the age of 28-38, when he came back he fought for 10 more years until he was almost 49. And in the time away from boxing he had a spiritual awakening and when he came back he realized he was older and reinvented himself with a distinct style to take advantage of his age-related limitations. Like the cross arm block.
Fighters do age differently though. There are a lot of factors involved from genetics to career length and opposition fought.
His legs get jelly easily by a jab. It wasn't that bad when he fought Klitschko. So, as he aged, his equilibrium system has gotten worse.
I don't think he's shot, 35 isn't old for heavyweight these days. Is he prime, no, a little faded perhaps but far from shot. The issue was he hasn't fought a decent opponent over 2 years, so his skills declined, he was making basic mistakes he used to when he was a prospect coming up, that he had worked on and eliminated. You don't sharpen a blade it will dull the edge over time and that's what we saw last night. Dubois has been thrown in the deep end by Frank more than once and to his credit he's learned from it and gotten better. Hrgovic regressed because he fought one good opponent his entire pro career and Joshua too regressed due to a combination of circumstances with opponents pulling out and poor decisions on matchmaking. Whether this was Joshua's choice or Hearn's influence we don't know but whoever decided this course for AJ is the one to blame for his regression.
I wouldn't say Joshua's age was the deciding factor in this fight, Dubois was simply the stronger fighter who kept his word when he said he was going to destroy Joshua, Joshua grossly underestimated him...
AJ should be happy Its Dubois that Ko-ed him instead of Ngannou. I predicted a knock-out if Ngannou connected proper. At least its not an MMA fighter to do it. Anyways: its given his teribble resumé, recent results... i dont think Joshua should or will be a championship challenger in the future. He has been very very poor since at least Ruiz 1. Joshua has presented his candidacy as future gatekeeper. Or the heir of Dillian Whyte.
As I told many times if Joshua (but also Wilder) gets pressured and punched hardly he is over. Ruiz exposed this limit. If Usyk had had Dubois power he would have KO'd Bodybuilder within 3/4 rounds both in the 1st and in the 2nd bout. Time to retire for Joshua and Wilder.
I’m sure it was said that Joshua has only had three World Title fights with opponents younger than him,Parker,Dubois and Ruiz being a month younger iirc .
That first overhand right from Dubois must have been a 'lucky punch' and must have 'spoiled his equilibrium'........again, LOL!