Joshua warned over fight ,as he plans to cancel the coming...

Carl Froch has predicted Deontay Wilder will need less than three minutes to KO Anthony Joshua.

Joshua and Wilder are on a collision course for a long-awaited heavyweight showdown next year – assuming they can navigate past their respective opponents later this month. Joshua will take on Otto Wallin while Wilder will meet Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia two days before Christmas.

But Froch has dismissed his fellow Brit’s chances of ultimately beating Wilder should they meet. ” Deontay Wilder knocks him spark out in one round, I’ve always said that and I still think it is true,” he said on the In The Zone podcast. “Wilder would come out in the first round looking for AJ, who is tentative at the best of times, but he is now afraid of his own shadow these days. I think Wilder catches him with a bomb that lands on his chin and he goes down and just does not get up.

“Whether he can get up or not, he won’t want to. That’s the reason these two aren’t fighting now, because if that happens his career is over and the curtain comes down for good. However, if he gets his head right, he can definitely win that fight!”

Froch has been publicly critical of Joshua after he split from trainer Rob McCracken who previously coached Froch to become world champion. Joshua is now trained by Derrick James in Dallas but is working with Tyson Fury’s former trainer Ben Davison for his next outing.

And Froch added: “He’s with Ben Davison now as his trainer, Rob McCracken should be his trainer because he would get his head right for that fight, but the respect has gone now so they will never get back together again.

“The old AJ that brawled with Dillian Whyte, knocked out Wladimir Klitschko after getting knocked down and busted up Carlos Takam after getting his nose butted can definitely win that fight and do a job there because Deontay Wilder and AJ has got the Olympic pedigree so he can go and outbox him.”