ANTHONY JOSHUA has been told to jack his boxing career in if he fails to beat Jermaine Franklin in his return fight.
Franklin travels to London to spoil AJ’s comeback plans on Saturday night at the O2 Arena.
Anthony Joshua, promoter Eddie Hearn and Jermaine FranklinRex
Joshua, 33, is coming off two consecutive points losses to pound-for-pound star Oleksandr Usyk, 36.
Promoter Eddie Hearn hopes a confidence-building win over Franklin, 29, puts them right back on track for the big names and titles.
But former cruiserweight world champion-turned Sky Sports pundit Johnny Nelson insists another defeat should spell the end for AJ.
He said in a column: “If Anthony Joshua loses, he jacks it in. If he doesn’t jack it, he should jack it (in).
“Because it’s a hard mountain to climb. Especially when you’ve had the success and the heights that he’s had.
“So he can’t afford to lose. That’s a must. Then from that, it’s confidence building.”
Joshua believes this is the start of his road back to the heavyweight title, which would make him a three-time champion.
And Nelson feels if AJ is not contending for the belts then he is better off hanging them up.
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He said: “We’ll see if he really thinks ‘you know what, I can eventually become world champion again, I’ll fix what I got wrong’.
“Because he’s only been boxing 10, 11 years as a professional fighter.
“So if he thinks he can fix what he think he got wrong in regards to why he’s not world champion, then there’s a reason to stick around still chase the guys that are there, one of them has beaten him twice.
Of course there’s that lucrative fight that everyone’s talking about, which is him and Tyson Fury, which personally, I fell in love with the idea at first but it was teased so much and it never happened.
“So I don’t even don’t want to talk about it.”
Johnny Nelson says Anthony Joshua should retire if he loses to Jermaine FranklinRex