Two-time world champion takes on Otto Wallin in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night when his fans hope the old power punching style returns.

Anthony Joshua has personified menace this week in Saudi Arabia as the two-time world heavyweight champion tries to rediscover “destructive” mode.

Talk on the street is that Joshua will do just that against awkward southpaw Otto Wallin when the bell tolls for the ‘Day of Reckoning’ main event.

Where has that destructive power in the hands of the British behemoth been in the last four years? And how will the much-scrutinised heavyweight rid himself of accusations of being ‘gun-shy’ and ‘tentative’ in recent contests?

'Anthony Joshua needing to make a statement here if he is going to go on and win a world title for the third time'

🎥 @GarethADaviesDT reporting from Riyadh#TelegraphSport | #DayOfReckoning pic.twitter.com/4yydIpapYL

— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) December 22, 2023

New trainer Ben Davison – erstwhile overseer as friend and coach of Tyson Fury’s return from a personal abyss six years ago – has stepped into the breach, and the union with Joshua has paid dividends. Davison, a wise old head on very young shoulders, has assisted Joshua back into the mindset of putting his best foot forward. Joshua’s interests are best served when he comes forward as a power puncher, a breaker of opponents by using his natural strengths.

Joshua has refused to buckle under the microscope this week despite the circus that comes with a packed card that has 10 of the top 15 heavyweights in the world fighting. But there remains huge interest in the performance of Joshua, who walks last to the ring, especially in his mindset.

Joshua’s tense manner has been read as pressure, or even stress, in some quarters. But Joshua is “still in love with the sport” his trainer Davison assured Telegraph Sport.

Joshua’s message is clear. “I’m here to fight, I’m not here to party and get caught up in the glitz and glamour,” he says. “I want to fight. I want to perform well. I put that pressure on myself. Of course, I’m tense because I want to perform. I want to win. I’ve got that urge to win. I want to hurt my opponent as well.”

Davison, who has worked with Joshua for two months, says he has been “simplifying” processes for Joshua which allows him to assimilate attack and defence strategy – and implement it.

“This fight could go very quickly,” Davison says. “We are letting him ‘go’ in this fight. He has been stopping, knocking out and destroying sparring partners in this camp, brutalising them. We have worked out the moves together rather than waiting until he gets in there to work Wallin out.”

In truth, Davison has been speaking to Joshua “for some time” not just in this camp for the last six weeks.

“I think sometimes people read into these things a lot more than they need to,” Davison says of the examination of Joshua’s mindset. “He’s in a fantastic place, and I’m very very confident. I could see from a distance he’s very professional, he takes his job very seriously for sure, but in terms of how professional he is and his character, that has surprised me.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I like him, I think that sometimes like I say you don’t know someone till you know someone and I feel like I’ve got to know him… I think too defensive [in recent fights] is the perception, but I don’t think he’s purposely gone out there to be defensive, I just think it’s a case of being clear on strategy, understanding what’s leading to certain situations and certain scenarios, but all I can say is in terms of preparation I’m extremely happy. There’s lots of attributes to his game that he probably hasn’t utilised as well as he can, and I’m confident you’ll see those on Saturday.”

Assuming Joshua gets past Wallin, who we should not forget tore a gash over Fury’s right eye requiring 47 stitches in his only career defeat, it is understood he will face Deontay Wilder after completing contractual agreements while in Saudi Arabia to fight in March next year. But Wilder, who has had just one round in the ring in 26 months, faces a very focused looking Joseph Parker in a battle of former world champions. It is no foregone conclusion for Wilder, the knockout artist from Alabama.

Does Joshua need to make a statement, given the size and magnitude of this card, with Wilder-Parker on it too? His promoter Eddie Hearn does not think so. “We don’t want pressure on him in that way, that’s up to him, but we believe we’re going to get one hell of a win on Saturday,” Hearn says.

But the public will want, and expect, attacking AJ to return, or the mindset doubts will continue to linger.