James Toney has delivered a harsh message to Anthony Joshua, telling him to “grow some balls” – and face a real fighter instead of Daniel Dubois.

Joshua, a former two-time heavyweight world champion, is undefeated in his last four bouts and is set to vie for another world title later this year when he takes on Dubois in his UK return. It’s anticipated that Oleksandr Usyk will be stripped of his IBF belt, making it available for the Joshua-Dubois clash at Wembley Stadium. Toney, however, isn’t impressed with Joshua’s choice of opponent. Speaking to Pro Boxing Fans, he said: “Anthony Joshua, please grow some balls and fight some real fighters. Daniel Dubois, whoever he is, easy win for him. Step up and fight somebody for real, step up,”.

When asked who Joshua should be fighting, Toney suggested: “Jared Anderson, maybe James Toney. Nobody wants to see me, I guarantee you that.”

Joshua has faced criticism over the quality of his opponents after knocking out boxing novice Francis Ngannou in March, following victories over Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin last year. Joshua aspires to emulate Usyk by becoming an undisputed heavyweight champion, but his dream of competing for all four world titles could be thwarted by Usyk’s intention to return to the cruiserweight division. Usyk previously became undisputed at cruiserweight before moving up to heavyweight and aims to replicate this success in his former weight class.

“I think maybe after the Tyson Fury rematch, I want to go down to my weight at cruiserweight. We have spoken about that, go back down to cruiserweight and get undisputed for the second time in that division,” Usyk told Three Knockdown Rule. The Ukrainian has spent most of his career at cruiserweight and has only fought at heavyweight six times.

Joshua’s retirement plan has been laid out by his promoter Eddie Hearn, who thinks ‘AJ’ could hang up his gloves in two years. Hearn wants Joshua to fight either Fury or Usyk for the undisputed belts with a win against Dubois, who handed Filip Hrgovic his first loss in a career-best performance.