Retired boxer Timothy Bradley thinks Anthony Joshua has lost his confidence and is scared of being hit since his 2019 loss to Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua suffered the first loss of his professional career when he was stopped by short-notice replacement Ruiz in a shock upset.
The Brit went on to win back his titles six months later against an unprepared Ruiz and defended them the following year against Kubrat Pulev.
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But Joshua would lose his heavyweight titles again when he was outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk last month.
Bradley echoed the words of John Fury who thinks Joshua has become comfortable with losing since fighting Ruiz.
He told FightHype : "It’s a different mentality. Joshua, his mentality is way different than Tyson Fury. Joshua’s okay, it just seems like he’s comfortable with losing a fight.
"He's gracious and whatever you want to call it, but it’s too easy for me. Boss, it’s hard to train when you’ve got the whole world at your feet, bro. It’s hard to train and stay focused and stay dedicated and having that hunger and desire, bro.
"Because success, that weakens (the mind), and I think in the Ruiz fight — I think that ruined him.
“I think that ruined his confidence, I think he’s also scared to get hit. He’s gun shy, don’t wanna throw because he’s afraid of getting hit. So that’s why you didn’t see him throw."
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Joshua will get a chance to become a three-time heavyweight champion when he rematches Usyk in the spring of next year.
Fury's co-promoter Frank Warren has called for Joshua to step aside and take a warm-up fight so Fury can face Usyk in a unification fight.
And Bradley thinks Joshua accepted defeat midway through his fight with Usyk.
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"Usyk’s a small heavyweight but he does have some snap on his shots but he’s the bigger guy, he needs to act like he’s the bigger guy. It’s almost like he’s a big guy but he has a small guy mentality," he continued.
"He needs to switch that around and I think the only way is he has to have a talk with himself. That’s the only way to fix that.
"He has to talk with himself and say ‘hey, how do you want to be remembered?’...Where’s the guy that fought Klitschko? Where’s that guy? You bring that guy out, you beat a guy like Usyk.
“It seemed like he starting to get the game plan but then he just kinda ran out of juice and he was just okay, he just laid down like ‘alright well I’m okay with just losing, it’s fine, I’ve lost before. I got the rematch clause, the whole nine.’”
