Anthony Joshua saw Ilia Topuria’s loss and cut himself off from everyone

Anthony Joshua has drawn a stark lesson from Ilia Topuria's upset loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250, where the previously undefeated lightweight champion was stopped in the corner before the final round. Topuria, a massive favorite, had nearly finished Gaethje in the second round but absorbed mounting damage thereafter. Joshua, observing Topuria's pre-fight celebrations and the subsequent defeat, has since taken drastic action: cutting off unnecessary contact with people and becoming deliberately inaccessible. The heavyweight told Combat Evolved that the incident crystallized a hard truth about combat sports. "I think you've got to be in the fight game to truly know; it's not lit," Joshua said. "It's not what people think it is. It's not all fun and games. It's a serious, serious job. When I watched the Ilia Topuria fight, I stopped replying to people after that. Because I said, 'Yo, it's not a joke.'" Joshua, now 29–4, noted that Topuria had the odds in his favor—he had beaten fighters Gaethje had lost to—yet nothing in combat sports is guaranteed. "I saw someone in Ilia who was destined to win," Joshua added. "The stars were aligned for him to be victorious... but I just took something from it and I said, 'Get back to being uncontactable, less accessible, because the fight game is so serious.' You saw his face, what he went through. It's not a joke." Joshua returns to action against Kristian Prenga on July 25 at Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia.