Via Jeff Aaron: Oleksandr Usyk’s recent 20-plus pound weight loss that he sustained in defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion could give Anthony Joshua his best chance at defeating the unified heavyweight champion.
Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) probably won’t be able to put all the weight back in time to defend his IBF, WBA & WBO titles against Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) in July, and even if he could, he would slow down if he gained weight too quickly.
Joshua’s best chance to beat the ailing Usyk would be to add some muscle to the bout to take advantage of his recent weight loss.
During their fight last September at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, Joshua weighed a thin 240 lbs, and he didn’t perform well at that weight.
You could argue that Joshua would have been stronger if he had entered the fight in the low 250 minutes, which could have helped him crush the smaller Usyk.
The heaviest weight in Joshua’s career:
- 254 – Carlos Takam – TKO 10
- 250 – Wladimir Klitschko – TKO 11
- 249.5 – Gary Cornish – TKO 1
- 249 – Eric Molina – TKO 3
- 248.5 – Kevin Johnson – TKO 2
- 248 – Raphael Zambrano – TKO 2
What these fights show is that Joshua is at his peak when he is heavier, not lighter, as he has been in the last three years of his career.
Against Usyk, Joshua needed to increase his size and focus on taming the cruiser-sized Usyk. It was Joshua’s best and perhaps only chance to win the rematch.
“Can you understand the relationship between Rob McCracken and Anthony Joshua and how that played out in the fight against Oleksandr Usyk?” Simon Jordan said to TalkSport Boxing.
“The only way for Anthony Joshua to lose that fight is to fight the way he did, which is to fight Usyk’s best fight,” Simon continued.
“The conventional wisdom is that Anthony Joshua, the bigger, stronger man will apply it to Usyk and do the things you’re good at,” says Jordan.
“Anthony Joshua is not going to win the fight in the center of the ring clearly, so he has to be able to control the ring, he has to be able to make Usyk work harder than he wants to do. work,” said Ben Davison.
“If he can control the ring and create scenarios that work in Anthony Joshua’s favor, then he has a chance, but to do that, he has to control the areas of the ring where the fighting is. The fight is going on,” Davison said.
“He has to be able to control the ring and get Usyk to fight at a faster pace than he wants. Leaving him in the middle of the ring and allowing Usyk to give orders, he would never win that hand-to-hand combat. It will never happen.
“He will be mindless and therefore will fight, but if Joshua can control areas of the ring, make Usyk skirt around, make him break his base, attack when he is. break his base he will have more easy entry. , entries are much safer and he will land cleaner and more often.
“Sometimes a boxer doesn’t go out and do what you ask them to do. Such situations and scenarios are possible. I don’t know if that’s the case, but sometimes if a fighter already in his head, ‘This is how I’m going to continue the fight’, makes that adjustment, they just don’t make it. .
“Sometimes there is that scenario. No matter what I ask, they won’t make that adjustment. So you have to look for something else,” says Davison.
Spencer Oliver said: “Joshua did something wrong in that fight and I talked to Joshua about it too.
“That’s where he made tactical mistakes, and he couldn’t make those adjustments and he couldn’t adapt because once Usyk caught on, it was Joshua fighting on the back foot and he couldn’t do the things that should have been won. he fights.
“What can help him win the fight is his rawness, his strength, his speed and his power. He should have taken Usyk out of his rhythm, which would have allowed him to get into his rhythm,” Oliver said.
“Joshua is not as smart as Usyk, also mimics that manual rhythm, and Usyk breaks it often,” says Davison. “That’s what caught Anthony Joshua.
“Usyk would create a rhythm, and Joshua would match it, mimicking his opponent, which happens when a boxer knows his opponent a little bit better than he does. They often find themselves mirroring what their competitors are doing.
“Usyk was creating a rhythm with his lead hand, Joshua was mirroring it and Usyk broke it and got swept out all the time. Sure, when it comes to that element of the game that’s for sure,” Davison said when asked if he believes Joshua is less intelligent than Usyk.
Oliver said: “When have you told Joshua to roll the dice because the teamfight slipped out of his hand, we can see that.
“As the fight goes on, we can see that Joshua gets more and more negative and allows Usyk to get more rhythm and Joshua starts getting injured.
“At a corner point, you’re going to say, ‘Joshua, you need to roll the dice here and fight him because it’s all busted,'” Oliver said.
“It was tough because he injured his left hand in the first ten seconds,” Davison said.
“By the time the fight got to the tenth round, I said to Joshua, ‘You need to rip the script right now and hit him and knock him out or get knocked out because you’re not going to win. Oliver said. “He broke down slowly and systematically, didn’t he?
“Given where we are now, will he beat Usyk next time, and if so beat Tyson [Fury] when he finally landed in the ring with. “
