In the immediate aftermath of the fight, Joshua said he wanted to continue in boxing.

Describing himself as a “warrior”, he added: “If people want to see me fight, I will fight.”

Joshua won gold at the 2012 Olympics in his home city of London, and claimed his first world title eight years ago.

Saturday’s fight was his 32nd as a professional – and afterwards hinted he had a rematch clause.

Fury, watching ringside, joked to a television camera that Joshua’s defeat had cost him £150m – the sort of fee he could have expected if the two were to fight.

In the meantime, Fury must focus on his rematch with Usyk in Saudi Arabia in December.

Joshua has also been linked with a bout against former world champion Deontay Wilder – but the 38-year-old American’s past two fights were defeats against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang. Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott was at Wembley on Saturday night.

While the Briton ponders his options, Jones is clear on what he believes his next step should be.

Asked if Joshua should “walk away”, the Welshman said: “I think he should. He’s a credit to the sport and has reinvented sport in Britain in many ways. He made stadium fights seem the norm.

“He’s got all that money, he’s still got his health, and he’ll be a celebrity until the day he dies if that’s what he wants.”

Joshua’s long-time promoter Eddie Hearn said: “We’ve been here before, but the defeat by Ruiz was far more brutal.

“He’s OK. He’s gutted and kind of kicking himself about the mistakes he made. A lot of people around him are saying: ‘It couldn’t have gone any worse and he still could have won.’

“Of course he’s in the closing chapters of his career, there’s no doubt about that, and if you start getting knocked out like that you certainly have to look at things.

“We all know we’ve seen the best AJ over the last year so it’s difficult to say that just because he got chinned by Dubois, that’s it.”