Paulie Malinaggi feels that Anthony Joshua shouldn’t challenge Daniel Dubois again right away.

After dropping four balls in a painful knockout loss to underdog Dubois at Wembley Stadium last month, Joshua was left speechless.

Joshua was grounded four times in a devastating loss but is eyeing revenge.

AJ revealed after the fight that he would not be looking to hang up his gloves, and that an immediate sequel could be an option for 2025.

But in the latest episode of talkBOXING, Paulie Malignaggi believes he needs a rebuild fight before stepping in with ‘Dynamite’ again.

“I tell you what, if you’re going to do a rematch I want to see him with something in between,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to see a direct rematch. Because I don’t think you go into a fight like that where he got physically man handled.

“He got knocked out and he now needs a confidence builder to see where you’re at.

“It helps you see if you’re mentally ready, if they call you for the fight and you are not under stress, you think ‘I can do this again’.

“But if you are in camp again and in the fight night situation, you think ‘do I really need to do this again’?’.”

“Now you have to get through yourself through a problem again, when you are younger you relish it.”

Joshua is now 34-years-old and his desire to compete at the top level has been questioned by some in the boxing world. But he has defiantly insisted he is still ready to fight on and become a three-time heavyweight world champion.

Malignaggi believes Joshua needs a tune-up fight.

The previous division king has already been forced to rebuild from losses against Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk in his career. Malignaggi also thinks that before deciding to go on a vengeance quest, he should talk to himself about his future.

He continued: “You could see AJ when Dubois was bringing that fire, he just couldn’t match it.

“So he needs to have a conversation within yourself, you can’t lie to yourself. It is tough.

“But you need to say ‘can I match that intensity if I find myself in that situation again?’.

“Part of your mentality has changed after that, you are in preservation mode.

“You won’t have that same reckless abandon of youth, and do you really want to go against that energy of youth?

“Dubois has that right now and I don’t know if AJ can match that intensity.

“It is more than desire, it is a mentality that passes you by as you get older.”