By William Lloyd: Anthony Joshua is putting his focus on trimming down in weight and working on combination punching to ready himself to defend his IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight titles against former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on September 25th.
Joshua’s combination punching may come in handy in this fight because Usyk is excellent t defending against single punches thrown from sluggers like him.
Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) will be a much smaller man than the 6’6″, 245 lbs behemoth Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs), but he’s got the stamina, boxing IQ, and enough power to knock AJ out in the later rounds.
Joshua, 31, wants to ensure that he doesn’t gas out against the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk as he’s done in several of his fights during his eight-year professional career. Hence, Joshua is trimming off muscle weight.
Gassing out isn’t an option for Joshua
AK vs. Usyk will be headlining at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London. The fight winner will be waiting on the outcome of the October 9th trilogy match between WBC champion Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
Perhaps more than Usyk for the moment, it’s Joshua’s wish to become the 4-belt undisputed heavyweight champion. So if Joshua wins this fight, he’ll go after the Fury vs. Wilder 3 winner in early 2022.
As for Usyk, he might be content with giving Joshua a rematch should he beat him because the money would be too hard to resist.
“I’m looking trim for this fight. I’m fighting a guy who is a 12-round fighter,” said Joshua to Sky Sports on his fight with Usyk. “It would be silly of me to go in there bulky with my muscles screaming for oxygen.
“I’ve been training like a 15-round fighter in this camp,” Joshua continued. “Also, I practice having the ability to [punch] four times, not just once.”
As long as Joshua doesn’t fade quickly after throwing a handful of punches, he’s got an excellent shot at beating the 34-year-old Usyk on September 25th.
We’re likely to see Joshua using the same type of movement against Usyk that we had seen him use in the rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in December 2019 and in his fight with former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker in March 2018.
Joshua likely to use Klitschko style
In both of those fights, Joshua appeared to copy the old fighting style of former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko by utilizing movement, jabbing & clinching to stymie Ruiz and Parker’s efforts at landing shots.
The Ukrainian Usyk is familiar with Wladimir’s fighting style, so it is probably as much of an obstacle for him to land his punches as it was for the slow-footed Parker and Ruiz Jr.
“You can either be aggressive, corner [him], throw everything at it. Or take your time, be clever, then knock [him] out,” said Joshua.
“100 percent, he will be. Movement means you are never stationery to get hit,” Joshua added about Usyk likely to be using a lot of movement.
The jab of Joshua will be key to controlling this fight because if he can continually land those shots, he’ll keep the smaller 6’3″ Usyk bottled up on the outside, unable to get close enough to connect.