By Jack Tiernan: In a sign of increasing separation on Anthony Joshua’s part, he worked out today with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Dubai in hopes to improve his game enough to defeat Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch next April.
The 44-year-old Mayweather offered recently to give the former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) some tipis for his rematch with the unbeaten Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs), and it looks like he finally took him up on his offer.
Unless Mayweather can improve Joshua’s terrible stamina, weak chin, and robotic style of fighting, it’s going to be an utter waste of time for AJ to work with him. Mayweather can’t teach any of those things, so Joshua would be better off working his old coach and doing the best he can in the rematch with Usyk.
Rather than let Mayweather confuse him with useless advice, Joshua should tell his promoter Eddie Hearn to accept a step aside from Tyson Fury’s offer, no matter how small, to steer clear of the Usyk rematch.
If Joshua avoids that fight, he can face the winner of Usyk vs. Fury and make big bank.
Assuming Fury defeats Usyk, Joshua might have a good chance of beating ‘The Gypsy King,’ particularly after the punishment he took in his recent fight against Deontay Wilder last October.
Joshua already knows how to spoil
Mayweather can teach Joshua more spoiling tactics with holding, moving, and carefully picking opponents at the right time of their careers. None of those things will help Joshua in his fight with Usyk.
We ALREADY saw Joshua spoiling like mad in his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in December 2019, moving, holding, and staying on the outside.
Joshua doesn’t need Mayweather to show him those dull, spoiling tactics if he wants to try and use them in his rematch with Usyk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyuCcsj3hu0
Mayweather’s careful match-making to avoid losses during his career will be useless for Joshua because he’ll look silly if he only faces guys that are beatable the way Floyd was hand-picking his opponents.
Floyd was one of the more boring to watch fighters in the sport, but he gained a large following due to his trash-talking outside of the ring.
Mayweather was a BORING pot-shotter type of fighter inside the ring who would throw single shots from the outside, move around, and tie up his opponents. In this writer’s view, Floyd was always boring to watch.
If you compare Mayweather’s performances during his career to more action-packed fighters like Pacquiao, they were like night and day.
Mayweather CAN’T teach Joshua how to be fast
It’s questionable whether Mayweather has anything to teach the 32-year-old Joshua because a large part of what made Floyd a successful boxer was his blazing fast hand speed, reflexes, quick feet, and excellent conditioning.
Unfortunately for Joshua, those are things that CAN’T be taught. You’re either born with those elements or not, and you can’t teach someone to have fast hand speed or cat-like reflexes.
Those were things that Mayweather was blessed with. His careful match-making was equally crucial for Mayweather in terms of his success during his career.
Floyd was excellent at picking his opponents when they were old or, in the case of Canelo Alvarez, too young, which helped him avoid taking losses against fighters that would likely beat him.
For example, in Mayweather’s biggest career win, he waited six years before fighting Manny Pacquiao, who by that point in his career was 37 and not the fighter he’d been years earlier when boxing fans were anxious to see him and Floyd fight.
AJ has little chance of regaining the #1 spot
“Anthony Joshua is definitely still up there as one of the best and one of the top three in the world,” said George Groves to Sky Sports on whether Joshua can become the #1 heavyweight again.
“I think he defeats Deontay Wilder and beats the other guys coming through. But we now have to see how much desire he still has. It will be extremely difficult to get back to that No one spot but never say never in the heavyweight division. It only takes one punch,” said Groves.
It’s doubtful that Joshua will regain his #1 spot in the heavyweight division at this point because he doesn’t possess the punch resistance, and his stamina is too poor for him to beat the top guys.