By William Lloyd: Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz is predicting that Anthony Joshua will lose his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk next March when the two meet up in a fight expected to take place in the UK.
The former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Ortiz (32-2, 27 KOs) laughed when asked by Fighthype about his thoughts on the Joshua-Usyk 2 rematch, saying “He’ll lose again.”
Ortiz’s remark has been echoed by many boxing fans, who think it’s a wrong-headed idea for Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) to be taking a second fight with Usyk so soon.
They think Joshua needs time to work the flaws that Usyk exploited in their fight last September in London, and they want to see AJ in action against other fighters before he tempts fate a second time.
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn both think it’s a simple matter of being more aggressive in the rematch with Usyk to get the win.
The two sound excessively optimistic about the rematch with Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs), and it’s very likely that things will end badly.
If it was just one loss, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad, but if Joshua gets beaten again by Usyk, it’ll be his third defeat in his last five fights. Losing that often in a short period suggests that the problems Joshua has in his game are beyond fixable.
“He feels like the tactics he used in that fight, he got it wrong,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing UK. “He has to take some of that responsibility as well. He’s the fighter in there and he can’t just blame other people. The trip to America wasn’t just an interviewing process. It was a little bit more of a soul searching, I guess.
“It was a way to look at things and say, ‘How do I improve? He [Joshua] had some great conversations with some brilliant boxing minds and I was there for some of them. It was, ‘What do you think I did wrong?’ AJ likes to analyze those kinds of things, but some fighters don’t even think about it.
“He wants to understand why he didn’t win that fight or what he did wrong and how he could be better. At the moment, all he cares about is how can he beat Oleksandr Usyk and he’s obsessed with that.
“Rob McCracken is a huge part of the team, more than a trainer to AJ. He’s a friend, a mentor, and all of these things. The America thing is good energy, it’s fresh.
“He was out there, and it wasn’t like he could walk down the streets without getting mobbed. He’s the kind of guy where if someone is asking for a photograph, he’s doing it and he’s doing it for everyone on the street.
“It is draining. It’s a blessing, but it’s draining. So, I think America would be a good move for him,” said Hearn about Joshua.