I think he was in need of a heart transplant as well. He had a touch of Andius Ruizinus, which seemed to effect his heart. He seemed to get better, but heart issues like that tend to re-emerge when under stress.
Because he didn’t think he needed elbow surgery. He felt a niggle in training. A specialist told him to rest up for 6 weeks and then he’ll get back to punching properly. But when he went back to punching the same problem flared up again meaning he had no choice but to have surgery. Joshua will fight once at the back-end of the year.
Was the surgery on his right elbow? If there’s anything wrong with the power in his right, if he loses that, he’s done and should retire. there are only two fights that make sense for him. Fury or Chisora, in the UK. Fight Fury, fight Chisora after, retire. Doesn’t matter if he wins the Fury fight, him and Chisora would still sell out any stadium in the UK they liked. two cash outs, then retire. If he wants to hang around the scene, sign a contract with DAZN or The Ring to travel around and do interviews and commentary at fights. Would be awesome if he’d show up to do some of the little basic DAZN fight nights — a former HW champ would receive a hero’s welcome, and the fighters would love it.
a hungry underdog? Dubois holds a world title and is about to fight the #1 heavyweight in the world for undisputed. the breakdown on that sequence was fine but that was real disrespectful of Dubois.
He could go for Chisora and the IBF mandatory, though that is a riskier fight. They probably want to put him in with someone who is less likely to hurt him. Someone like Wallin who he has already beat.
I remember when Dubois pulled out of the Parker fight, AJ said he’d have subbed in but was recovering from an injury. The elbow has to be what he was talking about. side note, I’d bet on Parker any day over AJ.
PMSL. Poor 'ol AJ, eh. I've always said, when a fighter loses twice to Usyk they're never the same man thereafter. Something inside gets proper broken... His Dubois loss was purely academic as a result..