Anthony Joshua agrees with Jake Paul after assault on AJ, Fury and Usyk

Anthony Joshua has claimed that high boxers are being handled ‘too properly’, resulting in lengthy durations of inactivity which might be having a unfavourable influence on the game. And the British fighter, who will return to the ring on August 12 to face Dillian Whyte, has not absolved himself from the criticism both.

It comes after American YouTube star Jake Paul slammed boxing’s heavyweight stars for failing to battle commonly sufficient, accusing them of ‘ducking one another’.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Paul mentioned: “For me the heavyweight division’s in shambles. The heavyweight division right now is the only division that’s not stepping up to the plate and making the big fights happen.

“The light-weight division’s doing it, clearly Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford [welterweight]. But for some cause within the heavyweight division, we’re not getting it. We’re not getting Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua, we’re not getting Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk, we’re not getting Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder, we’re not getting Deontay Wilder vs Andy Ruiz.

“Like, what are these guys doing? Come on, let’s make the sport a better place. You guys get paid to fight, so get in there and stop ducking each other.”

Joshua’s forthcoming bout with Whyte on the O2 Arena is a rematch of their 2015 encounter and will result in a possible headline conflict in opposition to Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia on the finish of the 12 months.

WBC champion Fury, nevertheless, has chosen to face MMA star Francis Ngannou subsequent, in a Saudi exhibition match on October 28.

Speaking to Steve Bunce on BBC 5 Live Boxing, Joshua has conceded that fighters in his division are usually not working exhausting sufficient and defined the explanations behind it.

The 33-year-old mentioned: “We’re not fighting regularly enough. Us fighters [are at fault], we’re getting treated too well. When we get looked after too well our bellies are full. You gotta be hungry. It’s too much. Everybody’s getting looked after. Bellies are full.

“You fight in January, you’re on holiday until September. Life is good. You know what I mean? You gonna keep eating.”

Since knocking out Wladimir Klitschko to turn out to be a unified heavyweight champion in 2017, Joshua has averaged two fights per 12 months, however he admits that he’s not as obsessive over the stats of his battle file as he as soon as was.

He added: “There was a component of, like, defending your ‘0’ [early in his career], however I used to be preventing everyone, anyway.”

Joshua gained his final battle in April in opposition to Jermaine Franklin, having beforehand misplaced back-to-back contests by the hands of unified champion Usyk.