Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch was not overly impressed with the recent performance by two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

The British star returned to the win zone on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, after winning a twelve round unanimous decision over Jermaine Franklin.

Joshua was primarily shooting a jab and seemed to play it safe for most of the fight.

“In the ring at world title level he’s been there, done the business. And now I don’t know. What motivates him? We talked about it, he wants the money. I don’t understand why he’s fighting. I just don’t. It’s a dangerous sport. Money can’t be the motivation when you’ve earned over £100 million. I've not seen anything in that performance that he wants to be a world champion again," Froch told BBC Radio Five Live.

The win allowed him to recover from suffering back to back decision losses to unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk. It was Joshua's first win since December of 2020.

However, Joshua was doing a lot of holding and never appeared willing to engage in a shootout with the smaller Franklin - which Froch believes is a further sign of Joshua's decline from being an aggressive knockout artist,

Many observers believe Joshua's aggressive nature was broken when he was stopped by Andy Ruiz in a shocking upset loss in 2019. 

“Joshua has lost all his aggression and killer instincts. The ability is still there, the boxing is still there – he looks the part. But every time Franklin shaped up like he was going to hit him, he hesitated. I’ve never seen him like that, he’s a bit shell-shocked," Froch said.

“The last few rounds Joshua was very hesitant. Signs of fighter who doesn’t want to do it anymore. If he doesn’t want to do it anymore, I think he should stop.”