The Ukrainian finally staked out his future place in the Boxing Hall of Fame
Late Saturday night, WBA/WBO/IBF/IBO world champion Oleksandr Usyk defended his titles and added The Ring belt to them, defeating Anthony Joshua in a split decision rematch on points. The fight itself in Jeddah turned out to be tense, interesting and significantly different from their first fight. Sport Arena tried to figure out why by evaluating the actions of the main participants in the Usyk-Joshua boxing match.
What surprised Usyk
To be honest, it seemed that Usyk remained the same as in the first fight. The only difference is that now he did not look so well prepared physically: if in the first fight Alexander simply circled around Joshua, leaving him in the cold due to speed and footwork, now sometimes he took pauses, remaining on the attack line or near the ropes, where the Briton tried to push him back.
Read also: Usyk landed more shots than Joshua – CompuBox
In principle, everything is understandable: it is not worth reminding how much, under what conditions and in what emotional state Usyk was preparing for a duel with one of the most dangerous fighters in the division, and even the most tuned in for revenge. The very fact that Alexander accepted the challenge, found the opportunity and strength to prepare and win deserves great respect. It is likely that under other circumstances we would have seen another Usyk in the ring, but even this, as it seemed, not 100% of physical condition, but 150% of character was enough for the Ukrainian to win.
What surprised Joshua
With your transformation. Announcing the rematch, we said that for Anthony, a lot is at stake in the rematch with Joshua – money, respect, perspective. The Briton himself understood this best of all, having changed his coach and team and preparing for the fight for 11 months – all the time allotted. By preparation, I mean the analysis of the first fight and my mistakes, the choice of a coach (Joshua did not immediately stop at the candidacy of Robert Garcia), inventing not just tactics for the fight, which is discussed below, but also training methods that make it possible to bring it to life. And yes, cutting in the fight with Joshua, which Joshua was strongly advised by many experts, was out of the question.
It’s just that this time the Briton decided to take advantage of his main advantages – power and anthropometry. And also try to wrap not the strongest side of Usyk, as for a heavyweight – a blow in his favor. Hence the maximum overlap – hands at the chin, attempts to defend with the body, a minimum of attention to missed hits, as well as clear tactics: constant pressure, work from a comfortable distance and attempts to bring down Usyk’s impulse with sweeping long-range shots to the body. Joshua gave up on the idea of outplaying the Ukrainian and accepting his challenge in technical, playful boxing, which turned out to be problems in the first fight. But just try to break Usyk’s plan, wear him out and win with more accurate and strong hits – why not.
What surprised the referee
Firstly, of course, I was surprised by the American ringside referee Glenn Feldman, who saw Joshua’s victory in the fight and put up 115:113 in favor of the Briton. Of course, the fight was not exactly one-sided, but the maximum Joshua took five rounds, but certainly not seven. The scores of two other judges – Englishman Steve Gray (115:113 in favor of Usyk) and Ukrainian Viktor Fesechko (116:112 in favor of Oleksandr) looked more adequate. By the way, we also scored 116:112 online in favor of Usyk.
And he was also surprised by the referee in the ring – Puerto Rican Luis Pabon. There is no doubt about his professionalism, but this time he allowed Joshua too much – blows to the back of the head, blows below the belt (once the fight was even stopped), blows with the back of the glove, attempts to simply take Usyk down. And yes, this is another unsightly, but quite expected action of the Briton, who previously did not differ in dirt in the ring: when almost everything is at stake, you will use any means to win.
Unsurprisingly, the most tense moment of the Usyk doi fight – in the ninth round – came right after Joshua’s rough and rough and dirty action, ignored by Pabon.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Joshua
Alas, no matter how contradictory it may sound, Joshua’s advantages – power and anthropometry, are also his problems. Large muscles need to be fed with oxygen and fight at a constantly high pace, both moving and striking, the Briton cannot. Remember the fight against Wladimir Klitschko, when Joshua, who went into a spurt, knocked down the Ukrainian, and then he could hardly stand on his feet, having spent a huge amount of strength and oxygen.
Something similar happened in the second fight with Usyk. Maintaining the pace of the Ukrainian in the first half of the fight, Joshua decided to spurt in the eighth or ninth round, he did not achieve success, but he spent a lot of energy, becoming an easy prey for the Ukrainian at the end of the fight. As the rematch showed, Joshua knows how to box, and if Garcia tightens his functional readiness, he will be even more dangerous.
Well, do not forget about the mental problem of the British, which we also focused on before the fight. If the fight doesn’t go according to his plan, Joshua often gets lost and just doesn’t understand what to do in the ring. So it was this time, when a bet on a knockdown or simply removing Usyk from their system in the 8-9th round did not work. Yes, and the speech itself and the behavior of Joshua after the fight also speaks of his unstable psychological state in moments of failure.
But so far only one thing is clear. Joshua is really a very cool boxer and it’s definitely early for him to retire from sports. Yes, it is possible that Anthony is unlikely to beat Usyk and Fury – both of these guys are truly brilliant in boxing, but he is definitely ready to cope with the rest of the fighters in the division. And there it will be possible to think about titles again.
Usyk: what’s next?
Usyk made a big statement after the fight, noting that now he will either box against Tyson Fury or not box at all. The reality of the second is unbelievable. The first option is quite likely. With all the statements of the Gypsy King.
And it’s not at all about the crazy prize fund, which will surely be in this fight. And not in a duel between two top, undefeated fighters. And in the opportunity to finally get the undisputed world champion in heavyweight, who had not been for 30 years – after Riddick Bowe, who defeated Evander Holyfield in November 1992, refused one of the belts, not wanting to carry out a mandatory defense. Some consider Lennox Lewis, who owned the WBA / WBC / IBF and minor IBO titles in 1999, to be the last absolute world champion in heavyweight, but then the World Boxing Organization (WBO) existed almost in full force, which held championship fights and played its title, although, admittedly, it did not have such authority as it is now. No one has won the four main heavyweight belts.
And, for some reason, it seems that this is the main motivation for the sharp, outrageous, but at the same time very ambitious Fury. No matter how one treats the Gypsy King, one cannot but recognize the main thing: Tyson is an athlete to the marrow of his bones, who loves sports challenges and cares about his heritage. Not without reason, even at the moments of his severe depression and deprivation of champion titles, he said that he truly recognizes only two titles – the lineal champion and the champion according to The Ring magazine, according to which he recently lost the belt.
And if so, then the motivation to beat Usyk, become an absolute and further strengthen his boxing heritage can definitely force Fury to enter the ring again. And yes, judging by the videos on social networks, the Briton is training, in great shape and definitely does not look like a man who went all out on a long-awaited vacation.
No wonder the British promoter Eddie Hearn, who organized Usyk’s last fights, did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between the Ukrainian and Fury in the ring. “They are both amazing fighters. I’m not sure that someone can beat Oleksandr Usyk. Tyson Fury is a smart man. He had the opportunity to fight Usyk, but he chose not to. Will he return to boxing? Good luck to both of them, but Fury needs to understand that Usyk is an incredible fighter.”
Pavel Livertovsky
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
