Former world champion boxer Anthony Joshua says watching Ilia Topuria lose to Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 pushed him to step again from social media and deal with the battle recreation with renewed seriousness.
Talking in regards to the light-weight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, Joshua defined that the champion’s defeat and the seen harm he sustained have been a turning level for him. The battle, which noticed Topuria stopped by physician intervention after 4 rounds of brutal stand‑up exchanges, left the Georgian‑Spanish star marked up and bloodied as Gaethje’s strain, jab and energy photographs amassed harm. Joshua stated: “Once I watched that Ilia Topuria battle, I ended replying to folks. [The fight game] just isn’t a joke. You noticed his face, it’s not a joke.”
Anthony Joshua Opens Up on Why Ilia Topuria’s Loss Hit Totally different
He went deeper on the mindset shift, pointing to how closely favored Topuria had been going into the White House bout. “The chances have been in his favor. Not that it was a foul factor, however I noticed him celebrating earlier than. He didn’t inform us what he would do as soon as, however I simply took one thing from it, and I stated, ‘Get again to being uncontactable. Be much less accessible as a result of the battle recreation is so critical. You noticed his face. What he went by means of just isn’t a joke, man. It’s not a joke.”
Joshua framed his feedback across the actuality of harm and danger that elite fighters stay with each time they compete. Gaethje, a 28‑5 light-weight with a historical past of excessive‑influence wars in opposition to names like Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, dragged Topuria into prolonged exchanges the place each clear shot altered the course of the battle. For Joshua, seeing an unbeaten champion who had completed Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira now endure that form of loss strengthened how rapidly momentum and well being can flip on the high stage.
“I feel you’ve acquired to be within the battle recreation to really understand it’s not. It’s not all folks suppose it’s. It’s not all enjoyable and video games. It’s a critical, critical, critical job, man,” Joshua stated. He linked Topuria’s rise, together with wins over opponents who had beforehand overwhelmed Gaethje, to the shock of seeing that narrative flipped in a single night time. “Once I watched that Ilia Topuria battle in opposition to Justin Gaethje, I ended replying to folks after that as a result of I stated, ‘Yo, it’s not a joke.’ I noticed somebody in Ilia who was destined to win. The celebs have been aligned for him to be victorious. I feel Ilia had overwhelmed people who Justin had misplaced in opposition to.”
Joshua will return in opposition to unbeaten Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on July 25, in a scheduled 10-round contest. Prenga brings a 20-1 file with 20 knockouts, whereas Joshua enters at 29-4 with 26 stoppages; it will likely be his first bout since his September 2024 defeat to Daniel Dubois. The Prenga battle is designed to arrange Joshua for a proposed late-2026 assembly with Tyson Fury, with stories pointing to November and Netflix because the supposed broadcast house. Joshua vs. Fury has been described as agreed in precept, although each fighters should first come by means of their summer time commitments earlier than the long-awaited all-British heavyweight battle can happen.
