{"id":412048,"date":"2023-02-10T04:09:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T09:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=412048"},"modified":"2023-02-10T04:09:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T09:09:22","slug":"this-is-probably-the-most-serious-time-ive-taken-it-says-joshua","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/this-is-probably-the-most-serious-time-ive-taken-it-says-joshua\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;\u0422his is probably the most serious time I&#8217;ve taken it,&#8221; says Joshua"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"qa-introduction gel-pica-bold\" role=\"introduction\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0\">British heavyweight Anthony Joshua, who prepares to fight Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena in London on 1 April, says he is probably going through the most serious time of his career.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A toast to all the hustlers and most importantly, you. The customers \ud83e\udd1d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/d1bf6lzPKm\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/d1bf6lzPKm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/anthonyjoshua\/status\/1623750473470582784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3\">\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0.0\">The two-time heavyweight world champion is searching for his first win since 2020 after successive defeats by unified champion Oleksandr Usyk.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1\">\n<div id=\"bbccom_mpu_1_2_3\" class=\"bbccom_slot bbccom_standard_slot mpu_first_slot\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1.$body-0\">\n<div class=\"bbccom_advert\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.1.$body-0.0\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve always tried to make an empire but I made a conscious decision last year to put my heart into boxing and nothing else,&#8221; the 33-year-old Joshua said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5\">&#8220;Throughout my career, this is probably the most serious time I&#8217;ve taken it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-9.0\">The Watford fighter <a href=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/joshuas-new-head-trainer-confirmed-ahead-of-franklin-fight\/\">appointed new coach Derrick James<\/a> as his new head coach ahead of his <a href=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/joshuas-comeback-fight-to-take-place-at-the-o2-arena-in-london\/\">comeback fight against Jermaine Franklin on April 1.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-10.0\">Joshua fights at the O2 Arena for the first time since 2016, and the first time in eight years he will not be fighting for a world title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-11\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-11.0\">Since his last bout at the O2, where he has fought seven times, Joshua has had the majority of his bouts at major outdoor stadiums.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-11\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-412059 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/josh-fran.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"544\" height=\"680\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-12\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-12.0\">American Franklin, 29, is the clear underdog, just as he was when he lost to Dillian Whyte on points last Desember.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-13\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-13.0\">But two demoralising defeats by Usyk have left Joshua at a crossroads in his career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-14\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-14.0\">&#8220;Everything I&#8217;ve been through &#8211; positive, negative &#8211; I&#8217;m using it to fuel my camp now,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-23\"><span data-reactid=\".yzfxgyooes.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-23.0\">A win over Franklin may tell us nothing new about a fighter who almost single-handedly ushered in a modern era of interest for British boxing, but it may give a clue as to whether the old Joshua, the once unstoppable freight train, can return.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British heavyweight Anthony Joshua, who prepares to fight Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena in London on 1 April, says he is probably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4224,"featured_media":412062,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17307,17308,17309],"news_category":[16710],"gn_keywords":[],"acf":{"announce":"The Watford fighter faces Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena in London on 1 April","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/412048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/412048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412048"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=412048"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=412048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}