By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua’s southpaw sparring partner Shokran Parwani believes he’s got the style to solve the puzzle presented by the crafty Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) needs all the help he can get to prepare for the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk’s confusing style.
The talented Usyk possesses a high ring IQ, and he’ll be able to solve AJ’s new Klitschko-esque copycat style easily.
The Ukrainian Usyk knows the Klitschko style quite well, and it’s fair to say that it’s a simple one for him to solve.
The 29-year-old German-based cruiserweight Parwani (16-1, 13 KOs) has been hired to mimic the fighting style of former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) ahead of his fight with Joshua on September 25th at the Tottenham Stadium in London.
Parwani previously helped Derek Chisora and Marco Huck for their fights with Usyk, both of which lost to the Ukrainian. With neither of those guys solving the Usyk, it’s unknown how Joshua and his team would believe that he’ll be able to help him.
Parwani was recently knocked out in the sixth round by 36-year-old journeyman Vikapita Meroro (30-10, 15 KOs) on May 15th.
That was arguably a step up for Parwani in getting knocked out by Meroro, who came into the fight having lost six out of his last seven contests.
Usyk won’t have power late
“Oleksandr Usyk doesn’t have power. In rounds nine, 10, or 11? He won’t have the power to fight, and AJ will break him down,” said Parwani to Sky Sports.
Parwani’s fighting style is nowhere near how Usyk fights. As far as Charles Brun can tell, the only similarity between Parwani and Usyk is that they both fight in the southpaw stance. That’s basically it.
Parwani is glacially slow, both of hand and foot, easy to hit, and he’s not a big puncher. Yeah, he has many knockouts on his resume, but his opposition has been nothing but obscure fighters.
When Parwani did try and step up recently against journeyman Meroro, he was knocked out in six rounds. If this is the best that Team Joshua can come up with to prepare him for Usyk, he’s in BIG trouble on September 25th.
“I have a little bit of the same style,” Parwani said about him fighting like Usyk. “I work more with my feet. And I am a slick guy with a lot of movement.”
I don’t see anything similar to how Parwani fights and Usyk, but the boxing fans can judge for themselves. He’s too slow and easy to hit to mimic Usyk’s style in any real way, and he doesn’t move around the ring the way he does.
Ultimately, Joshua can’t find someone who fights like Usyk unless he moves his training camp to Ukraine and trains with local boxers.
Although Usyk’s fighting style is unique, there are elements to his game that one can see from fighters in Ukraine. If I were Joshua, I would hire six or seven Ukrainian boxers to mimic Usyk’s fighting style.
Joshua can afford the best sparring partners
AJ would be better off if he were to use that approach. With Joshua’s huge $80 million fortune, he’s got the money to hire the best sparring partners from Ukraine.
I mean, this isn’t the time for Joshua to shortchange himself by choosing not to pay to recruit the best talent from abroad to help him out.
If Joshua loses this fight with Usyk, he will miss out on a massive payday against the winner of the October 9th Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III clash.
Things could fall apart big time for Joshua, with him potentially losing to Usyk twice in a row, which would sink his career to the murky depths.
Parwani’s recent knockout loss to Vikapita Meroro:
“Usyk is also a slick guy. He isn’t a puncher. “I saw him live in his fight with Marco Huck. He is very good. His IQ is very high. I rate him very highly.
“But he doesn’t have power,” said Parwani of Usyk.
With the angles that Usyk uses to throw his left hands, he’s got more than enough power to knock out Joshua. It doesn’t take much power to KO Joshua, as we saw with Andy Ruiz Jr stopping him in their first clash in June 2019.
What Joshua should have done is vacate his WBO title so that he didn’t have to fight Usyk because this is too risky of a fight for him.
With the pirate treasure that Joshua would get by fighting the winner of the Fury-Wilder 3 trilogy, he doesn’t need to fight a guy like Usyk.
It’s a wrong-headed move on Joshua’s part, and he could be sorry for it later.
“He is the future undisputed champion,” Parwani continued about Joshua. “I think AJ will knock Fury out, absolutely.
“He [Joshua] is dedicated and more focused. He is focused only on boxing, and this is important. And he will beat Fury.”
Yeah, Joshua will beat Fury, but he may never get the opportunity to fight him if Usyk destroys him on September 25th. Hopefully, for Joshua’s sake, he makes a sound decision on which direction to go in if Usyk beats him in September.
Does Joshua put his career on the line by boldly going into a rematch with Usyk as he did against Ruiz, or does he cut his losses and move on?
Joshua can’t count on Usyk blowing up to 300+ lbs the way Ruiz Jr did ahead of a rematch with him. Also, the Klitschko style that Joshua used against Ruiz Jr in their rematch won’t work against Usyk.
That’s an easy style for him to solve. Joshua will need to come up with some other idea if he wants to avenge his loss to Usyk because recycling the Wladimir Klitschko style that he’s been using recently isn’t going to work.
That’s a simple style for Usyk to defeat. The best thing that Joshua can do is just walk away and not let Usyk wreck his career by beating him a second time.
Joshua wanted the fight with Usyk and now he’s got it. If Joshua loses, it’s his own fault because he could have vacated their WBO strap and fought Fury in Saudi Arabia.