Ex-Klitchko’s coach warns Joshua over Fury

Wladimir Klitschko’s former coach, Johnathon Banks, has had his say ahead of Anthony Joshua’s potential two-fight blockbuster with Tyson Fury in 2021.

Joshua was sensationally stopped by the unknown Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019, with the Briton falling to the first defeat of his professional career in the seventh round.

After wreaking his revenge on the Mexican in December that year – albeit with the fight going the distance – the Watford-born heavyweight then disposed of Kubrat Pulev in seven rounds last month to retain his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBF titles.

Joshua’s team are negotiating a unification series with Fury and while the Ruiz Jr. rematch and the Pulev fight saw Joshua adopt an unusually cautious style, Banks believes the 31-year-old needs to be much more aggressive to have any chance of beating the undefeated WBC, Ring and lineal belt-holder.

“The fight is huge. I don’t care where you put it but especially if you put it in the UK, that’s huge,” Banks, who was in Klitschko’s corner when the Ukrainian was knocked out by Joshua in 2017, told The Sun.

“Fury is the only one that’s undefeated, so you have to give the edge to the undefeated guy, I’m assuming.

“But it all depends on how AJ wants to fight. He can’t fight Fury like he fought Andy Ruiz in the second fight. And he definitely can’t fight Fury how he just fought Pulev the last fight.

“He has to figure out another way of fighting Fury. If AJ was to be real physical, that would be, to me, one of the best ways to fight him.”

Klitschko went into retirement after the Joshua loss, but incredibly it was revealed earlier this week that he is looking to return to professional boxing.

However, his older brother Vitali has said that will only happen if he is offered £75 million.