Anthony Joshua has claimed that he would ‘smoke’ Oleksandr Usyk if the Ukrainian were not a southpaw.
Usyk earned a decision win against Joshua in London last September, taking the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles from the Briton in doing so. “AJ” will try to regain the belts and avenge the loss when the pair clash again this Saturday, their rematch taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The consensus among pundits is that Joshua, 32, must take a more aggressive approach than in his first fight with Usyk, 35, but the former champion has explained his tactics from that bout and why implementing aggression is not as easy as it seems.
“It sounds crazy,” Joshua said via the Daily Mail, “but I’m not going to lie: My objective was never to hurt him, to land damaging punches; my aim was to go the full 12 rounds and prove I could box as well as he does, to land scoring punches.
“But I didn’t work hard enough to prepare for a 12-round fight at that pace. I wasn’t in the right mindset – that of wanting to go in there and smash him. Using my size and power this time is evident, isn’t it? But to work on it is easier said than done.
“Training camps are so challenging, so draining, so brain-fatiguing. I need to be better conditioned.
“I need adjustments to deal with a southpaw, because to me these lefties are a nightmare. I swear that if Oleksandr wasn’t a lefty, I would have smoked him – 100 per cent.”
Joshua has therefore seemingly admitted that it is not wise to try to outbox Usyk, but also that he will struggle to finish the unbeaten Ukrainian even with a more aggressive style.
All will be revealed on Saturday night, when Joshua seeks to become a three-time world heavyweight champion.
