Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has said that he needs to rediscover his “passion” for boxing, amid growing rumours of a rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua, 29, lost his three world title belts in a seventh round knockout defeat to Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in June, crowning the challenger as the first boxer of Mexican descent to become a hold a heavyweight world title belt.
“I feel strong enough and I feel I can correct my wrongs,” Joshua told Sky Sports.
“I need to be around as many boxing people as possible because right now I need to soak in the experience and knowledge — and get that passion back.”
WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder said in an exclusive interview with ESPN in July that Joshua should not take a rematch with Ruiz, given that Joshua been put down four times by Ruiz during the bout.
Joshua said he wanted a rematch with Ruiz to take place in the U.K., but added that a venue outside of his home country would not stop him from taking the fight.
“You’ve got two ends of it. There’s one, I’d fight in Tijuana and Ruiz’s uncle could be the referee and I would still whoop him. It don’t matter to me where it is. But then there’s the other aspect of the British fans that have been riding with me from day one want to see me get them belts back.
“It doesn’t matter to me where it is. I would love it to be in Cardiff but it’s going to be on neutral ground.
“Ruiz is the champ so he will make some calls in that situation but I’m going to battle for it to be in the UK because it’s my stomping ground.
“Walking out in Cardiff in front of 70, 80, 90 thousand people screaming and rooting for you to win, that type of energy that goes through your body is unstoppable and I think that could give me the little bit of edge I need to win those belts.”
Ruiz hit back at Joshua’s comments about the prospective fight’s location, tweeting: “AJ says he can ‘whoop’ me in Tijuana prove it let’s run it in Mexico. Remember that you did have a huge reason to come to America and that was to build your profile.”