Anthony Joshua makes retirement vow and pleads with Tyson Fury

Anthony Joshua has played coy over his claim that he will retire if he loses to Jermaine Franklin on Saturday. Earlier this week, Joshua said that his main event against the American would be his final fight if he were to lose – and the Brit has now explained the reason for his claim.

Joshua said on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday: “Well, I keep on getting asked that question. Like, ‘Oh, if you lose, are you gonna retire?’ Sometimes I just feel like I’m not gonna debate with people, so I’ll just be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll retire if I lose.’

“I just kind of give them what they want to hear, and so I’m not gonna debate with people time and time again about the decisions that I can make in my career.

“So, I just kind of said, ‘Yeah, if I lose, I’ll retire,’ and I just left it at that. And now it seems that that’s the common theme, but as I said, winning is part of the programme.”

AJ is looking to bounce back from two straight decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk. The unbeaten Ukrainian took the unified heavyweight titles from Joshua in 2021 and retained the belts against him last August.

Big fights and the chance to add more KOs to his highlight reel await, but Joshua must first get his career back on track by beating Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night.

Johnny Nelson has admitted that he thinks Joshua should retire from boxing if he loses to Franklin.

Ahead of the fight boxing pundit Nelson spoke to Sky Sports News and sensationally revealed that AJ should hang up his gloves if his night ends in defeat.

He said: “My big question is this… what is there in Anthony Joshua at the moment? Because after losing two fights on the bounce, now he’s had to relook at his confidence to think, ‘Who am I? Do I really belong here? Do I really want this?'”

The former cruiserweight boxing world champion added that AJ must “jack in” if the Brit loses to the American, adding that he “can’t afford to lose”.

The boxing pundit concluded: “If Anthony Joshua loses, he jacks in. If he doesn’t jack in, he should jack in, because it’s a hard mountain to climb, especially when you’ve had the success and the heights that he’s had. So he can’t afford to lose, that’s a must.”