Anthony Joshua is in a desperate position in taking on heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch on August 20th.
AJ lost badly to Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) last September, and he can’t afford another loss if he wants to continue to be viewed as an elite fighter in the division.
The question boxing fans have is if Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) will stick it out and continue his career if he’s beaten by Usyk a second time when the two battle on August 20th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
If Joshua retires, you can’t blame him if that’s the direction he goes in because it’s all downhill from here. He will not be able to patch things together like an older person getting a facelift. In boxing, there is no disguising advancing age, and Joshua is performing more like a fighter in his 40s than early 30s at this stage in his career.
DAZN is betting that Joshua will turn things around, as that’s why they poured a tremendous amount of money into signing the 32-year-old fighter.
Whatever adjustments Joshua plans on using for the rematch, you’ve got to expect Usyk to be ready for them. Joshua has telegraphed what he plans on doing in the rematch by hiring Robert Garcia, a trainer that is being brought in to try and toughen AJ up.
“I think Usyk and Joshua is going to be an interesting second fight. We’ve seen Joshua in the past make adjustments,” said Tim Bradley to SecondsOut. “When he fought against [Andy] Ruiz, he boxed and made adjustments.
“He’s an Olympic gold medalist; he can do it. He knows how to make adjustments, but I think it’s more mental than anything for Joshua,” Bradley continued.
“Technically, he can improve in certain areas, but mentally he has to become stronger. You’re in there with a guy like Usyk, who is mentally tough.
“This guy is fearless; he’s a tremendous boxer off his back foot and a lot of movement. He’s tough to deal with and is a smaller guy, yeah, but he’s able to find those little seams to take advantage of.
“Those moments where you have the big heavyweight guy that is sitting still, and he’s able to sneak shots in on them. In the rematch, that’s a tough one. I’m not sure.
“I know he was doing well when he was attacking and going to the body of Usyk, which is the largest target that you should be hitting at, especially when you have a guy that moves his head a whole hell of a lot and moves his feet.
“If he [Joshua] comes out and starts attacking his body early and has a steady pace, you don’t have to be reckless, and have a steady, controlled pace, and lets his hands go and don’t try and throw with too much power early on and just try to touch him; I think he has a chance. I think he definitely has a chance of beating Usyk, but we’ll see,” said Bradley.
