'I know where Anthony Joshua has gone wrong – nobody will dare tell him'

Former cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson believes Anthony Joshua's days of challenging for the biggest belts in boxing are over. And he has attributed the former world No. 1's fall from grace to his lack of a support network that will drive him to his best.

It was only three years ago that Joshua, 35, was in contention to unify the heavyweight division before consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk. The Olympic gold medal-winner then appeared to be back on the rise after putting together four straight wins, only to suffer a devastating fifth-round knockout defeat to Daniel Dubois last year.

Nelson, who retired in 2006 after going a decade undefeated, believes the boxing world has "seen the best" of Joshua. He at least partially blamed his plummet from the world title spotlight on 'AJ' not having the right people in his entourage.

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"It's very hard to have people around you that'll tell you how it is," said 'The Entertainer' in an interview with Mirror Sport, courtesy of NewBettingSites.uk. "You're going to have people around you that want to stay in your employment, stay in that circle. So they're going to tell you stuff that you want to hear.

"They're not going to tell you, 'You need to be doing this, you need to get a hand up, you're getting hit, you're getting beat up by this guy here. Why are you doing that? Why aren't you running this time? Why are you going to open that crisp packet when you should be in the gym?'"

Nelson determined: "Nobody on his squad are going to dare tell him that with any conviction. And so now all of a sudden the roles have changed, whereas when you're hungry, and you need it, they want to drag you up.

"Now he's the boss. They work for him. And so that's where the problem is. And I think that along with time, along with age, along with experience, along with appetite, once they get out of kilter [it's over]. AJ's in that position."

There was a palpable sense of regret in AJ's voice when he witnessed Usyk's knockout of Dubois at Wembley on Saturday. Promoter Eddie Hearn told his fighter they "should have beaten Dubois," to which the former world champion replied simply: "I know."

Joshua's undefeated career came to an end when he suffered another surprise loss in June 2019, a seventh-round stoppage at the hands of Andy Ruiz. Although he avenged that loss just six months later, it served as another example of the Briton's oversight.

His two decision defeats to Usyk could hardly be considered lamentable given the Ukrainian's success since moving up to heavyweight. But the same perhaps can't be said for his IBF title clash against Dubois, particularly in the form he was in at the time.

However, it's perhaps pertinent that each of those unexpected losses to Ruiz and Dubois came at points when AJ was enjoying surging highs in his career. The former materialised when Joshua was 22-0 and held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO belts, while Dubois got the better of him just when it seemed he was back on top, having finished each of his previous three fights.

He now faces an uncertain future, with a clash against YouTuber Jake Paul being mooted, while speculation of a Tyson Fury matchup are never far.

Nelson went on to liken his situation to that of former training partner Prince Naseem Hamed, who was a world-beater at one stage himself.

"I've been around Prince Naseem, an amazing fighter. And I was around him from the very beginning of his career," he continued. "But then all of a sudden he started to surround himself with yes men. He deleted all the people that kept him grounded and said it how it was to him to keep him real.

"And the more yes men he surrounded himself with, the more his boxing life turned into chaos. He lost fights he shouldn't have done. He was surrounding himself by the swimming pool in Bob Hope's house when [Marco Antonio] Barrera was up in the mountains training. And he's saying, 'Yeah, I don't have to do this.' There was nobody around him to say, 'What are you doing?' It's the same with a lot of modern fighters now."

The money on offer to boxing's elite today is bigger than ever, and Nelson is happy for Joshua that he's made enough to make a clean getaway from the sport. But while some may scratch their head as to why Britain's former poster boy hasn't quite lived up to his full potential, there's a sense those around Joshua have to carry some of the blame.