Anthony Joshua is still ‘searching for greatness’ | ‘Now I haven’t got anything to protect,’ AJ says | Boxing News

Anthony Joshua is nonetheless “searching for greatness”.

Two times ahead of Joshua has been a heavyweight environment winner. Now though, immediately after consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk, he finds himself with out a title of any form for the first time given that 2015.

AJ is on the comeback trail, returning to motion at the O2 Arena in London on April 1 towards American Jermaine Franklin.

For this future bout he will also have a new trainer in his corner, Derrick James whom the former winner is training with in Houston.

“When you are seeking for greatness, when you are exploring for better you’ve got got to go outside the house of your convenience zone and go hunting and seeking,” Joshua instructed Sky Athletics News.

“I finished up in Texas and Derrick James is a very good mentor amongst a lot of other trainers out there. But in the small roster that I chose, I felt Derrick was a superior healthy for me.”

Crucially for Joshua he will just take on Franklin with a new state of mind. For this battle, for the very first time in a long time, he feels like he has absolutely nothing to lose.

“I am looking at myself as a contender. When you have the belts and are champion, you have to combat a particular way. Because [you’re against] another person who’s coming to consider what you have,” Joshua said.

“There’s various mindsets to you seeking to safeguard what you have. Now I haven’t bought anything at all to guard so I am going to come in with a various frame of mind so that’s what different about it.

“It can be a normal changeover. Like the hunter and the hunted. I’m just on the diverse stop of the spectrum now and I’ve just got to rebuild. Jermaine Franklin’s on that exact same conclusion of the spectrum as well, so it’ll be a fantastic struggle.”

Franklin past boxed in the Uk in November, when he missing a near greater part conclusion to Dillian Whyte. Joshua insists he is dealing with the American as a true menace.

“It shows what variety of fighter he is. Let’s not underestimate my opponent,” he mentioned. “I regard him, I fee him and I’ll consider him critically.

“It truly is a new year so I have acquired to depart that [Usyk defeat] in the past and glance forward. Jermaine Franklin is a superior fighter for positive. Someone I respect and amount simply because it would be foolish of me to underestimate any opponent and I am seeking ahead to acquiring back again in the ring,” Joshua continued.

“I never know why but it feels distinctive to what it commonly is. But we’ll see how I acclimatise to walking in as somebody who’s a contender for the championship now.”

There is an eventual deadline for him to gain yet another title. The 33-calendar year-outdated does not intend to preserve boxing into his 40s.

“I just want to have time to nevertheless are living and have entertaining,” he mentioned. “As an athlete we try and have pleasurable but even when you are out you happen to be however imagining about when you slumber, what you might be ingesting, you’ve bought to drink h2o, so you have normally acquired factors enjoying on the back again of your mind so I want to be youthful enough to just be no cost.”

He is not prepared for that but though. “I think people anxiety the unknown. So when I made a decision to grow to be a fighter it is really what I dedicated my life to,” he reported.

“I you should not know anything at all else. Mainly because this is the very first career I seriously had and selected to devote my lifestyle to. So for me to action into a unique career, retirement for illustration, it truly is the unfamiliar. So who is familiar with what that seems to be like.

“For a specific amount of money of time I want to give my lifestyle and power to fighting and I have not strike that time yet. So I’m just likely to continue on doing the job towards that.”