Current WBA "regular" heavyweight champion Mahmoud Charr believes Anthony Joshua is a mentally broken fighter.

There are ongoing discussions to make a January 2024 showdown between Joshua and Deontay Wilder - but Charr feels Joshua is not ready for such a fight.

After suffering consecutive defeats to unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, the British star bounced back in April with a twelve round decision win over Jermaine Franklin. He then returned in August and scored a brutal one-punch knockout of Robert Helenius.

Charr believes Joshua has not been the same fighter, mentally, since suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Andy Ruiz in June of 2019. Joshua avenged that loss six months later with a dominant decision win.

"Right now Joshua is mentally broken, you can see that. Against Andy Ruiz Jr when he got first knocked out, two losses against Usyk, he looks broken. He needs time. He is not ready for Fury," Charr explained to Seconds Out.

"He needs five or six easy fights to get back to himself. If he fights Wilder next he can stop boxing after that. He is not ready for Wilder or Fury and not ready for me."

If a fight with Wilder falls through, then Joshua is looking to fight again in the month of December. Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, mentioned Ruiz and unbeaten Filip Hrgovic as potential opponents.

For his part, Charr reclaimed the WBA strap as part of a legal settlement with the World Boxing Association. He has already been ordered to make a mandatory defense against unbeaten contender Jarrell Miller - with their respective teams engaged in discussions to work out a date and location.