The two fighters went face to face on stage. He turned into an extended face without any man being willing to escape their first glance after the fight. Usyk tortured Joshua in 12 laps in September at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London to give Watford Heavyweight a unanimous defeat and the second defeat of his professional career. Image: Anthony Joshua will face Oleksandr Usyk for the second time this summer Neither has fought since then, but will fight in a rematch this summer in Saudi Arabia with Joshua under pressure to reclaim the unified WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles and regain his place in the category. Both Joshua and Usyk won gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics. Ukrainian Usyk became the undisputed cruiserweight champion. Against Joshua he proved that he could handle a top heavyweight and is now considered one of the best pound by pound fighters in the world today. But the Briton is adamant that he has learned from their first fight and will make the necessary changes to win the second time. “God willing I will play and become a three-time world heavyweight champion,” said Joshua. “The great thing is that I have a second chance. What led me to boxing in the first place – when I was young I had a small problem every now and then and I had a second chance. I found boxing. And I got it with both hands. So, If you know me and a lot of my story, you know that I am the king of return. “You can put me down. But it’s hard to keep me down.” Usyk, measured in his approach as always, said calmly: “As we all know, we are not in the best condition right now back home [in Ukraine] but we do what we have to do. We do our job. My team and I are working hard to achieve our goals. I never made some very loud and clear speeches. All I did was work hard at my training camp and gym. I will do this until the date of the match and then I will enter the ring and make you happy with my boxing “. Joshua reversed his first professional defeat when he defeated Andy Ruiz in another rematch in Saudi Arabia in 2019. But he acknowledges that he will have to change tactics for this August match against Usik. To that end, he brought in a new coach, Robert Garcia, to join Angel Fernandez in his corner. “Sometimes, if you keep things simple, you can achieve great things,” he said. “Robert was great in the camp. “Surely hunger is still there.” “Mistakes happen, things happen in life,” he added. “We are still on the road, still on the road to the undisputed for sure.”
“Joshua made a mistake in the fight against Usik”
New coach Robert Garcia explains why AJ will be different in the rematch Anthony Joshua brought in a new coach for his rematch with Oleksandr Usik with Robert Garcia joining his team. The American insists that Joshua will be a different fighter until he enters the ring for the rematch. “I see a different Anthony now. The way he thinks, the way he talks, everything he does, everything he does in the gym,” Garcia said. “I think he did the wrong thing [before against Usyk] and this is the past. This has already been done. Usyk was the best man. Congratulations to him, but on August 20 we will do whatever it takes to win these titles. I know he can do it. He is the biggest man, the strongest man, he has the advantage of approach, so we will take advantage of all that and come that day, I think without a doubt we will have a three-time world heavyweight champion. “ As a team, Garcia says he is very motivated. “I want my first heavyweight champion in the world. I have had 14 world champions. It will be my 15th, but it will be my first heavyweight champion in the world and that is big, big for me,” he added. “We have to be prepared for everything. Usyk is a great fighter. He has skills, he has reflexes, he has accuracy, he has everything. But I think Anthony has all the tools to beat him.”
