Anthony Joshua 240 vs. Oleksandr Usyk 221 – weigh-in results

By Boxing News - 09/24/2021 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Anthony Joshua weighed in at 240 pounds on Friday for his title defense against Oleksandr Usyk this Saturday night at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London, England.

Usyk came in at a career-high of 221 1/4 lbs, which is four pounds heavier than his previous fight against Derek Chisora on October 31st last year.

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Surprisingly, Joshua’s weight is three pounds heavier than the 237 lbs he weighed for his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in December 2019.

In that fight, Joshua used the Wladimir Klitschko template to move, hold and jab to keep Ruiz from landing his powerful combinations. Joshua felt that he needed to be as light as possible to stay on the move to prevent Ruiz from getting to his chin as he had in their first fight in June 2019.

Joshua had no reason to come in super light

One reason Joshua chose to come in at a higher weight of 240 lbs for the Usyk fight is that the Ukrainian doesn’t possess the same power, speed, or combination punching ability that Ruiz had. So, there was less of a need for Joshua to come into the fight super light as he would have if he were facing a knockout threat.

For all the talk of Joshua supposedly coming into the Usyk fight much lighter than in recent years, his 240 lbs are only slightly less than the 240 3/4 lbs that AJ weighed for his last fight against Kubrat Pulev in December 2020.

Usyk is only slightly heavier

Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) played it safe by only adding a small amount of weight by coming in at 221 1/4 lbs than in his fight with Chisora.

Usyk looked slow and sluggish the entire fight against Chisora as if he was laboring with the weight that he’d put on since moving up from the cruiserweight division.

Perhaps Usyk and his team realized that it would have been a mistake for him to bulk up to the 230s for the Joshua fight, considering that would have slowed him down, making it harder to move around the ring.

Usyk showed in his knockout of Tony Bellew in 2018 that he has enough power to stop a guy with a steel chin even if he’s lighter.

221 lbs are more than enough weight for Usyk to knockout Joshua if he can land enough shots on him in the second half of the contest.  If Joshua gasses out late in the fight, Usyk can stop him.

Joshua’s 240 lbs are still far less than the 254 lbs he weighed for his fight with Carlos Takam in October 2017 and the 250 lbs that he scaled in against Wladimir Klitschko in April of that same year.

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