Mikey Garcia reacts to Anthony Joshua’s loss to Oleksandr Usyk

By Boxing News - 08/21/2022 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Mikey Garcia liked what he saw from Anthony Joshua in his 12 round split decision loss to Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday night in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mikey’s promoter Robert Garcia trained Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) for the fight, and for the most part, he fought well.

Where Robert may have needed more work with AJ is in the conditioning department, considering he emptied his gas tank after hurting unified heavyweight champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) in the ninth round.

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Joshua’s conditioning, or lack thereof, allowed Usyk to run away with the fight in rounds 10, 11, and 12. According to Mikey, he feels that Joshua could have won the fight. The judges scores it 116-112, 115-113 for Usyk, and 115-113 for Joshua.

Many boxing fans had Usyk winning 8-4, so even if the judges had given Joshua an extra round, he still would have lost.

“He actually did well. He came a little short, but that’s boxing,” said Mikey Garcia to Fighthype about Anthony Joshua’s loss to Oleksandr Usyk. “He’s a very good fighter, very difficult southpaw, and moves a lot, difficult to hit.

“He went in there and did what he had to do,” said Mikey about Usyk. “But even as it is, I think it was a very close fight. You can make an argument that maybe a round one way could have made the difference.

“Wilder can still fight. Maybe get a fight or two and regain that confidence and get back in training in the fight game. After that, maybe he’ll be ready to challenge the big names again.

“He’s always going to be a threat to the heavyweight division with the power he has, he’s always a threat. There are a lot of options for him.

“Like I said, maybe a fight or two get into the rhythm of things and then make that decision about the big fights. There are definitely a lot of fights that he can definitely partake in and still win.

“He’s always going to be a threat. Someone that has the power that he does will always be a threat, even into the last minute of the last round. You can never count out a guy like that. He being so hurt, get still rocked Fury a few times, even being hurt.

“All it takes is one shot to turn the fight around, swings the momentum, and before you know it, he wins.

“That’s a difficult fight for Usyk due to the size, and Fury is actually a very well-rounded fighter that can use the distance. He’s good at using the distance and the height, and reach.

“That’s a more complicated fight for Usyk, but Usyk is going to be trouble for everybody because he’s not an easy target. He moves well, lots of head movement, southpaw stance, tricky like that. He’ll always be a difficult fight for anybody,” said Mikey.