Former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua said he has taken a well-needed year off before he starts thinking about his return.
Joshua last boxed in September 2024, when he was dropped four times and stopped in five rounds by Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium.
Joshua has not boxed since, and has allowed a nagging arm injury to heal and take some time out of the ring for the first time since he turned professional in October of 2013, the year after he won gold at the London Olympics.
Now 28-4 (25 KOs), Joshua is 35, and the Londoner said he has been well served with a break.
“What I’ve done is I took a year out, the first time in 12 or 13 years as a professional, even with the amateurs, get my body right,” Joshua said, at Matchroom’s rebranding event in London last night. “I’m at a different stage of my career where I’ve got these years in front of me where I’ve got to make an executive decision of what I might do next, so when I come back, you know I’ll come back with a bang rather than just keep rolling back. I’ll come back fully active and raring to go.”
Joshua appeared on a brief panel segment alongside Frank Bruno, who fought on Matchroom’s first big show in a heavyweight clash with Joe Bugner in 1987, and touted 18-year-old heavyweight Leo Atang, who makes his professional debut in Manchester on Saturday.
