Anthony Joshua Desperate To Avoid Line In Sand With Usyk Rematch Boxing

Anthony Joshua is here for what could very well prove to be a career-defining fight. He faces Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night at the Abdullah Sports City Arena and will be looking to avenge his loss to the Ukrainian in Tottenham 11 months ago, in which he lost the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles via unanimous points decision. Joshua was reckless and combative in front of the home crowd and such was the gap in class that the 32-year-old knew he had to make major changes if he was to beat Usyk this time. And that he did, firing his longtime coach Robert McCracken and replacing him with highly regarded Mexican-American Robert Garcia. Armed with a more aggressive strategy, Joshua feels confident he can get his revenge this weekend and, in the process, join Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis to become three-time heavyweight champions. But he will equally have doubts and know they are shared by punters and punters alike. ‘A great night’: Usyk and Joshua set for heavyweight showdown – video Few, if any, are backing Joshua to defeat such a skilled and resilient opponent as Usyk, with many inside boxing, including former world champions Carl Froch and Kell Brook, saying defeat for Joshua is likely to leave him minimum. option but to retire after his 27th professional game. That may sound like hyperbole, but such is the nature of a sport in which the fall from the top is often brutally quick, and defeat on Saturday would arguably leave Joshua looking down rather than up in the heavyweight division. . The Briton’s much talked about clash with Tyson Fury almost certainly would not happen. This is partly because Fury is once again in retirement. If he were to return, he would likely face Usyk in a unification fight. Joshua would have no options to keep himself motivated, let alone chase greatness, which in turn would hurt his box office appeal. As Brook put it: “It wouldn’t have the X-factor anymore.” The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up of the weekend’s action Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Joshua played down suggestions that a second loss to Usyk would leave him nowhere to go, insisting: “It’s up to me and no one else what I do with my career.” However, he has also accepted that he “must win” here and there is an impressive gravitas to the pressing position he finds himself in, given that it was 10 years ago this month that he won gold at super-heavyweight at the London Olympics. Joshua was 22 at the time, clean-shaven and full of hope for the future, a future that saw him amass wealth and memories beyond his wildest dreams. But right now there may well be a part of him that wishes he could go back to those heady and largely carefree amateur days. Likewise, Joshua is likely to feel proud of what he has achieved since breaking into the professional boxing scene in 2013. The plan was to become world champion within four years – he achieved it in just three in his 16th fight, with a win over of Charles Martin at the 02 Arena in April 2016. Just over a year later came his 11th round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko in front of a post-war record crowd of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium. It was an epic moment that fully established Joshua as one of the biggest names in British sport, let alone boxing, capable of consistently selling out stadiums and winning while doing it. Carlos Takam, Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin were beaten in front of huge crowds, both at home and in the stands. Oleksandr Usyk takes a punch during his victory over Anthony Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Photo: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian But then came the loss to the little-known and, to put it mildly, out-of-shape Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden in June 2019. The seventh-round stoppage was a shock to Joshua’s system in more ways than one. , and while he did get revenge with a unanimous points victory in their rematch in Diriyah six months later, the glow that comes with being a proud, unbeaten champion had faded. And that is largely why Joshua is now back in Saudi Arabia, desperate for a victory that, given the opponent and the circumstances, would re-establish him as a heavyweight for the ages. For that to happen, Joshua has accepted that he needs to go back to basics, enlisting the help of Garcia and focusing on claiming the center of the ring and making full use of his formidable size, reach and power. It’s what Joshua does best and is, in fact, all he can do given his lack of technical ability on the back foot as well as the front foot. However, negative as this may be, it also speaks to the remarkable career trajectory of Joshua, the boy from a troubled background in Watford who was propelled into the glitz and glory of professional boxing by becoming an Olympic hero, and who essentially he had to learn on the job as he left the amateur ranks with only 35 fights to his name. He learned what he could, climbed high and, as was perhaps inevitable for someone so raw, crashed twice along the way. A third clash this weekend in the hot glare of a Middle Eastern night is perhaps inevitable given the brilliance of the man he faces, and for all Joshua’s insistence to the contrary, it could well prove the end. If so, it would at least be a trip like no other.

Anthony Joshua Desperate To Avoid Line In Sand With Usyk Rematch Boxing

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