Anthony Joshua says he’ll be hanging up his gloves within five years, as he feels he’s coming to the end of his career shortly. Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) is 31-years-old now, and in five years he’ll be in his mid-30s, and no longer in his prime.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua isn’t interested in hanging on longer than five years with his career. He would be facing a lot of young lions at that point, and they might have too much for him.

Joshua’s chin and stamina problems make him vulnerable to losing at any time, unfortunately, and that makes it difficult to see him lasting another five years.

Joshua has already been knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr, and who knows what will happen when he takes on Tyson Fury twice in 2021.

We could see Joshua retired this year if he’s beaten twice by the WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs).

“This isn’t the start of my career. I’m coming towards the end of my career,” Joshua said to Sky Sports News.

“I’m always planning ahead so I’m coming towards the end of my career.”

When you talk about retirement, it’s not a good idea for any fighter to speculate by predicting that they’ll be fighting a certain amount of years.

You have to play it on a fight by fight, year by year basis instead of talking about five years. There are too many things that can happen long before a fighter reaches the five-year point.

“Five years left and that’s basically an Olympic cycle,” said Joshua. “I’ve got an Olympic cycle and a little bit more left, so when you see the next Olympics happen is when I’ll be coming to the end of my career.”

There’s a very real possibility that Joshua could be retiring in one or to years at the most. He’s probably not going to deal with getting between twice in a row by Fury this year.

Getting between in consecutive fights is going to be a bitter pill for Joshua to handle, and it might be too much for him mentally to digest those defeats.

Joshua has too much pride for him to take the easy path after losing to Fury, and he’s likely to want to fight the top guys in the division.