By Barry Holbrook: Anthony Joshua says his game plan for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk will involve him abandoning the boxing and he did in the first fight and focusing on shooting for the knockout
It’s no great revelation on former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua’s part that he’ll be gunning for a KO of Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) because the entire world saw that the 6’6″ AJ used the wrong game plan last September when he lost in their first fight.
We don’t know whether Joshua has the punch resistance & stamina to fight aggressively like he once did earlier in his career when he was knocking out no-name opponents one after another.
It’s more complicated using Joshua’s old fighting style when facing top-five opposition, as we witnessed in his losses to Usyk and Andy Ruiz Jr.
Usyk was ready for Joshua last time and seemed to excel whenever AJ would fight aggressively.
When Joshua tried to go for a knockout in the 12th, the southpaw Usyk unloaded with a flurry of speedy shots that had his bigger foe helpless against the ropes, seconds away from being knocked out.
“The fight with Usyk, in my mind, was going for 12 rounds,” Joshua said while speaking at the Oxford Union.
“That was my game plan because I thought I could compete with him as a boxer,” Joshua continued. “And I think he won two more rounds than I did. That’s how he became champion.”
The Joshua vs. Usyk fight scores last September were as follows: 117-112, 115-113, and 116-112. Most boxing fans have Usyk winning by four rounds, not two like Joshua talks about.
You can’t fault Joshua for choosing to box Usyk because it had worked well for him in his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in December 2019. Of course, Ruiz’s boxing ability & weight took away any chance he had of winning the rematch with Joshua.
Usyk was in excellent shape, and it was a hopeless situation for Joshua to attempt to use the same game plan he had for the rematch with Ruiz.
“So the goal now is to go back to basics and go for the knockout,” said Joshua about his goal for the rematch with Usyk.
It would be a good idea for Joshua to have a plan B that he can use in case he has problems trying to score a knockout of Usyk.
If Joshua gets in trouble early against Usyk while shooting for a knockout, he’ll need to revert to the original game plan for the first fight.
“When you’re boxing, the art of boxing is to hit and not get hit. So you’re kind of boxing to stay away. That’s not really my style.
“My style is to be up close and personal and make it difficult for the person. So that’s the game plan.”
