MIAMI — Anthony Joshua’s one and only fight in the U.S. couldn’t have gone any worse.

Joshua was on the wrong end of one of boxing’s biggest upsets when he lost his heavyweight titles in a seventh-round stoppage defeat to Andy Ruiz on June 1, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York. While that’s the lone footprint in Joshua’s career when it comes to fighting in America, the former two-time unified heavyweight champion insisted that was a distant memory compared to where he is now in his life ahead of his fight with Jake Paul on Friday.

“It was different times,” Joshua said at the final press conference on Wednesday in Miami. “I’m not carrying that same energy that happened then to now. This is another chance for me to showcase my skills to the audience once again. I’m not carrying that energy from back then to now. That’s in the past. It was a tragedy, it was a loss, but if you’re in sports, it may happen. You may take some losses, but the goal is to bounce back.”

Joshua fought Ruiz in a rematch six months later in Saudi Arabia and won a one-sided unanimous decision to become a two-time unified heavyweight champion.

Joshua faces Paul in an eight-round heavyweight fight on Friday at Kaseya Center in Miami on Netflix. Both fighters will wear 10-ounce gloves, which is typical for a heavyweight fight, though, the fight will be in a slightly larger ring at 22-by-22 feet compared to the standard 20-by-20-foot ring.

Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) can’t weigh more than 245 pounds for the fight. The last time he stepped on a scale under that mark was for his rematch against two-time undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2022.

Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) will be facing by far his most difficult test inside the squared circle when he faces Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs). Paul, 28, is coming off a unanimous decision win over former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on June 28. He’s won six straight fights since suffering the lone defeat of his career, a split decision defeat to Tommy Fury in 2023.

Joshua, 36, will be stepping into the ring for the first time since he was dropped four times in a fifth-round knockout loss to former IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024, at Wembley Stadium. That loss, along with the upset defeat to Ruiz, is something the 2012 Olympic gold medalist described as just a part of the necessary ups and downs of his story and career.

The Watford man added: “When I look at my life, from getting in a lot of trouble when I was younger and finding boxing, to getting arrested before the Olympics and and then getting allowed to be a part of the Olympic team and then winning it, to then becoming heavyweight champion of the world, to then losing June 1 and then getting an opportunity to fight for the titles again six months later and then becoming a two-time champion, to losing to [Daniel] Dubois and now headlining on Netflix on Friday, through tragedy there can always be a great story.

“This is my story and this is just part of what my life is. That energy, there’s positives with the loss and it’s a great chance for me to showcase my talent and skills once again.”