By Charles Brun: Carl Froch believes Anthony Joshua is heading towards an almost certain second loss to Oleksandr Usyk on August 20th without “drastic changes” to his game for the rematch.
Froch doesn’t see the likelihood of former unified heavyweight champion Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) making all the corrections required to avenge his loss against Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) from last September in London.
Joshua and Usyk will be headlining on August 20th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Although AJ has hired a new coach in Robert Garcia, he’s decided to keep assistant trainer Angel Fernandez.
As such, we could see Robert and Fernandez barking different instructions at Joshua, 32, between rounds on August 20th, repeating the same chaos from the first Joshua-Usyk fight last September, where was total confusion in the corner.
AJ would have been better off dumping Rob McCracken and Fernandez at the same time when he chose to go with Robert Garcia.
At least with that move, AJ would have one voice in his camp and during the fight, and he wouldn’t get potentially conflicting instructions.
It doesn’t look good for Joshua heading into the rematch with Usyk, but he’ll at least have a puncher’s chance of winning. If Joshua can land something big, that might do the trick.
Joshua lacks the mentality to win
“It’s a tough one for AJ. I’d like to think AJ can do the job. He definitely has all the physical attributes to win the fight,” said Carl Froch to Joe,” when asked if Anthony Joshua can win his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
“He’s big enough, he’s strong enough, but I don’t think he has the right mentality,” Froch said of Joshua. “I’ve not been in his training camp the last ten weeks. I don’t know what he’s doing with sparring.
“I don’t know how the conversations are going with his psychologist if he’s got one or his trainer if his trainers are having these conversations with him on the game plan.
“In going into the sparring, how does he feel? Only he knows when his head hits the pillow on how his sparring is going and how much confidence he’s got.
“Based on his rematch with [Andy] Ruiz in how he boxed and ran and got the win and got his belts back, and then his fight with Kubrat Pulev. Then he lost against Usyk when he fought him.
“I’ve not seen anything since he got his soul destroyed by Ruiz; I’ve not seen anything that tells me he can beat somebody like Usyk. That’s not really against AJ because Usyk is that good,” said Froch.
AJ loses again without drastic changes
“Look at his amateur resume,” Carl said about the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk. “Look what he’s done as an amateur, and then he stepped up to be an undisputed cruiserweight professional in a division that was really tough at the time. People like [Murat] Gassiev in there in the Super Series.
“Then he [Usyk] came out on top in the Super Series. Undefeated, undisputed cruiserweight champion,” said Froch. “He steps up to heavyweight and fights Derek Chisora.
“To me, he was in first or second gear. He was that smart in that fight; he let people think he wasn’t a heavyweight and wasn’t good enough just to let people like AJ go, ‘Yeah, I could beat him’ and his team around him. ‘I think you can beat him.’
“Then he [Usyk] jumps in with AJ, and I don’t think he got out of third gear. He stepped up a little from the Chisora fight, and in the last round, he showed that he belongs in there with the big heavyweight, especially later on. He was fit and strong and not too heavy.
“I think your question was, ‘Do you think AJ can beat him [Usyk] in the rematch, and what happens?’ I don’t think AJ can beat him. I should rephrase that. I don’t think AJ will beat him.
“He should be able to. He’s certainly big enough and strong enough and has all the physical attributes. I just don’t think he has the right mindset. I don’t think he has the right mentality.
“So unless something is drastically changed with his mentality in the training camp in the build-up to the rematch and with the bookies. He’s [Joshua] a massive underdog,” said Froch about Joshua needing to make massive changes to his game to defeat Usyk.
