By Charles Brun: Oleksandr Usyk will be trained by his former coach Anatoly Lomachenko for his September 25th fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Antony Joshua.
Yuri Tkachenko trained Usyk for his last fight against Derek Chisora last October, and he didn’t look great in that contest. Although Usyk won the clash by a 12 round split decision, it was a razor-thin victory for the former undisputed cruiserweight champion from Ukraine.
This potentially bad news for Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) because Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) can learn from his old coach Lomachenko to beat him.
Anatoly is the father of former three-division world champion Vasily Lomachenko, and he helped make him the fighter he is today.
Surprisingly, the 31-year-old Joshua isn’t worried about the threat that Usyk brings to him, saying to Sky Sports, “None. I fear none of them.”
Apparently, Joshua hasn’t learned his lesson from his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr, and he could be ready for another defeat in September.
The thing is, Joshua could have avoided the fight with the dangerous Usyk by vacating the WBO title. It’s not as if the boxing public would give a fig if Joshua made this move.
Joshua has already got the IBF and WBA titles, so the fans wouldn’t care if he vacated the WBO trinket.
They want to see Joshua fight the popular heavyweights Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury rather than wasting time facing the non-marquee guys like Usyk and Kubrat Pulev.
Joshua vs. Usyk will be shown on Sky Box Office and will be taking place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on September 25th.
“Egis Klimas, who is the manager of both, I talk with him, and he has talked with the father of Lomachenko, who he calls ‘Papa Lomachenko’ who was the trainer of all these Ukrainian Olympians and he’s agreed to properly train Usyk for this fight,” said promoter Bob Arum to Sky Sports.
“His father wouldn’t train anyone else, but he will train Usyk because Usyk is like family.”
This could not be good for Joshua if Anatoliy Lomachenko can give him a great game plan to deal with his size, speed, and power advantage.
While AJ does have many things going for him physically in this fight, Usyk has the technical ability, superior stamina, and now the coaching to win.
Having Lomachenko in his corner will make the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk that much better and perhaps good enough to win. It’s great that Joshua is bigger than Usyk, but that might not be enough for him to win.
“Of course, I believe he can win,” Vasily Lomachenko said to Sky Sports about his friend Usyk.
“He has a very big chance, but it won’t be easy because Joshua also knows what he must do in the ring. But Oleksandr is much faster. It will be a fight between styles.”