Anthony Joshua Reveals Hardest Punch He Has Ever Received

Former two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has stated that the hardest punch he has ever received in his boxing career, and the punch didn’t come from an A-list boxer.

Interestingly, Anthony Joshua didn’t count the punches he received from Andy Ruiz Jr who defeated him once in two bouts, nor the ones from Oleksandr Usyk who beat him twice successively, as the hardest punches he has ever received in his boxing career.

Recall Joshua has also battled hard punchers like Wladimir Klitschko, and Russian dynamo Alexander Povetkin, but none of them gave AJ his hardest punch in his illustrious career.

Anthony Joshua said in a Men’s Health show that he received his hardest punch during his amateur days. The punch came from little-known Azerbaijani amateur boxer, Mahammadrasul Majidov.

Just like Joshua, Majidov went professional and was managed by AJ’s current boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. Unfortunately, he couldn’t enjoy the kind of success the Nigerian-born British boxer enjoyed.

While analyzing the hardest punch he has ever received in his boxing career, Anthony Joshua said, “I remember a tough fight in 2011, the final of the World Championships against a fighter from Azerbaijan. He had knocked out everyone to get to the final, we had a real fucking tear-up, he was so strong.

“I was inexperienced, making silly mistakes, and I walked on to one of his punches. Force meeting the force. Boom! I’ll never forget that punch. I lost by one point. So there was emotional pain and physical pain”.

Anthony Joshua is likely to face Deontay Wilder in the first or second quarter of 2024. The American boxer is believed to be the hardest puncher in the world which means that if the bout takes place, AJ could receive the hardest punch in his boxing career from the American.