“Anthony Joshua’s fought not one heavyweight in his prime. He fought Wladimir Klitschko at 42 years old, Kubrat Pulev 40-odd, Alexander Povetkin 40-odd.
“They’re all former good men, back in the early 2000s, late 2000s, but not in 2020-odd. They were good men 10 years ago.”
Defeat for AJ could put his potential fight with Fury in jeopardy, or at the very least take plenty of the gloss off the occasion, and the Manchester-born fighter has played down prospects of the bout ever taking place.
“A lot of people don’t know this but I’m not optimistic that the Joshua fight will ever happen,” he told Gary Neville during the same interview.