Anthony Joshua coy on retirement claim as Jermaine Franklin fight looms

‘AJ’ said earlier this week that he would retire if he were to lose to Jermaine Franklin

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 Briton has now explained the reason for his claim.

“Well, I keep on getting asked that quuestion,” Joshua said on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (29 March). “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.”

Joshua, 33, is scheduled to face Franklin, 29, at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday.

“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.

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