Hatton advises Joshua to go for Wilder fight

[FILES] Anthony Joshua reflected on his heavyweight defeat to Oleksandr Usyk, who claimed the IBF, WBA and WBO titles in London

‘AJ was a beast before he started boxing too much’

Ricky Hatton has offered encouragement to Anthony Joshua and has advised the former world champion to target a fight with Deontay Wilder, reports dazn.com.  

The 2012 Olympic gold medallist is ready to rebuild his career following two consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk and his next fight is almost certain to hold in the first three months of the year. 

Despite the double setback against Usyk, Joshua still holds serious aspirations of becoming world heavyweight champion for a third time.  

Due to his high profile and championship credentials, Joshua is very much still in the mix at the heavyweight division’s business end, and Hatton believes he should look for a long-awaited showdown with Wilder. 

“I’d have a little bit of a rebuilding fight to get his confidence, and no-one should complain about it,” said Hatton when speaking to Mega Casino.   “He’s lost his last two fights against Usyk, which is no shame whatsoever. Another factor is how hard he took the defeat where we grabbed the mic, and he took the belts out the ring and everything like that.   “So, obviously it affected him hard. So, don’t chuck him in at the deep end again. Give him someone a bit of a token, you know what I mean? And then go in for the Wilder fight.” 

Meanwhile, Filip Hrgovic has described Joshua as a beast who lost his way when he started boxing too much.

Though rivals, Hrgovic had a healthy dose of both respect and fear for the former unified heavyweight champion. While the former may still be present, the latter has ostensibly dissipated for Hrgovic, reports boxingscene.com.