Joshua looks mentally broken during Usyk promo shoot

By Boxing News - 06/23/2022 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua looked mentally broken already during a promo shoot with unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia for their August 20th rematch.

Joshua’s body language was that of a defeated man during the shoot with Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) for their clash in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

While Usyk danced around, smiled, and looked happy, Joshua watched him with a sad appearance of a fighter heading to his doom.

It’s fair to say that if Usyk starts dancing during the fight, Joshua will crumble and give up the ship without a fight. Whatever shred of self-confidence Joshua has will disappear once Usyk starts dancing around like he did today.

What was interesting was how Usyk owned the crowd during the promo shoot. When you look at this video, all you can think of is what on earth was Joshua thinking in choosing to rematch Usyk?

Joshua is like a mental basket case right now, and that’s NOT going to change in the next two months before their rematch on August 20th.

Usyk had them whipped to a frenzy with his antics and looked like he was the A-side star instead of former heavyweight champion Joshua. The difference in charisma between Usyk and Joshua was HUGE.

“I seen a lot out of Anthony and got to know him as a person. Joshua needs to believe in himself.  I just need to get his talent out to show what he can do,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Matchroom Boxing.

YouTube video

“He was holding back a little too much in the previous fight and focusing on boxing, but he can also be an aggressive fighter,” said Robert, sounding more like a psychiatrist than a trainer.

“He has the power, the height, the reach to be aggressive too, so we’re working on everything together.

“The main thing is he’s listening. He’s writing down his notes, and that’s one thing that inspires me to work even harder because I’ve got a fighter that wants to win.

“He writes notes so that way he doesn’t forget what I’m telling him, and he brings it to the gym and practices doing them,” said Robert.

While what Robert Garcia said sounds great, it reveals how shattered Joshua’s confidence is going into the rematch.

For Joshua to be acting like someone who has never been at the top, totally trusting Garcia, it’s troubling.

“He already is one of the most talented heavyweights in the division,” Garcia continued about former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua. “He needs to bring it out and show it to the world. For being such a great star in the UK, he’s a very humble person.

“In the gym, he’s very dedicated. That’s something that I’ve noticed. I’ve worked with many, many fighters, and that’s one of the things that I’ve worked with.

“He comes to the gym, he starts training, and he trains for a full two hours every day and gives it all.