Joshua v Usyk 25th September - Tottenham Stadium

[Primo Carnera]

So @Master , you must feel pretty stupid at the way you dismissed and disrespected Usyk. It’s one thing backing your man, but you shouldn’t let it cloud your judgement. Your RBR and scorecard last night were a million miles from anybody else’s both on this forum and right across the net and all the Broadcasters!
I watched it today and AJ wasn’t awful, but Usyk was just way way too slick and skilled .
And I have to say IMO barring somebody landing with a haymaker from nowhere, nobody is gonna touch him.
And people may disagree, but I still think it’s a 50/50 shot between him and Fury over who’s next best in the division.
Wilder? His only chance is if Fury fucks up . And AJ Still knocks him out. Usyk absolutely clowns him.
Whyte? His only chance against Usyk would be a clubbing overhead right landing from the other end of the World. Could happen, but unlikely.
Joe Joyce? Fucking hell, somebody even suggested he leap frogs AJ. No chance. As for Usyk, he Got beaten out of sight by Usyk in the WSB, and the same would happen now. (I actually think Joyce was better then, he was a bit lighter and more mobile, less robotic.)
Usyk is here to stay.

[Master]

Yes, got it wrong, not the first time and will not be the last.

Happens to the best of us.

[Beanz]

I would not totally discount Joshua in a rematch, however unlikely that seems now. Usyk is not invincible but like others have said, trying to outbox him is just playing into his hands. You use your advantage and Joshua never did that once. Fight close, fight dirty, lean on him , pressure. AJ's uppercut is one of his best weapons, but he isn't going to unleash that whilst backing off and letting Usyk put on an exhibition. All this exaggeration of AJ's lack of boxing ability does Usyk a real disservice. Yes the champion massively under-performed but that was some display from the smaller man that should have sent warning bells across the division. I don't think that he is an easy night for Fury either. A Fury who Cunningham and much lesser fighters than Usyk have proved can be wobbled would have kittens if a fighter as educated as Usyk jumps on him.

It was a bit lame for large parts from Joshua, but the fella kept at it for all 12 rounds, and could have done with a corner putting a boot up his arse. If he goes for the rematch he needs to come in big and pissed with a point to prove. There have been far shittier borefest heavyweight fights. (And I don't mean Fury/Wlad either)

Congratulations to Usyk and bring on the rematch.

[TIC]

Yes, got it wrong, not the first time and will not be the last.

Happens to the best of us.

that is part of the drawing power of boxing. if i always knew what was going to happen there would be no point in watching

[X]

Anybody who wins an Olympic gold medal can box, and box very well. Joshua is not suddenly the lumbering heartless oaf that people are making him out to be. He took his lumps over a sustained and tough beating over 12 rounds. There is nothing wrong with his heart.

The hype machine kicked in early with AJ, but it did with Audley Harrison too. Joshua is a much better, more complete fighter than Audley, and his career achievements are fantastic. I don’t believe he ever ducked anyone either.

What happened to him has happened to Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, George Foreman and Mike Tyson - he met somebody who boxed his head off until he ran out of ideas and didn’t know what to do. No big shame in that.

Usyk was genuinely fantastic. Footwork was outstandingly good, kept his cool and his IQ all night and he was fit as hell. Great performance in a very good fight really. I always though the was a quality operator.

Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that Usyk’s very best career performance is how good he always is, because that’s not the case. That’s how so many fighters over th years get so overrated

[Master]

Anthony Joshua admits he has ‘learnt his lesson’ after rewatching Oleksandr Usyk fight

Anthony Joshua has revealed that he has “learnt his lesson” after rewatching his points defeat to Oleksandr Usyk to relinquish his world heavyweight titles.

The Briton was outclassed by the Ukrainian at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last weekend, dropping the IBF, WBO and WBA belts to scupper hopes of an undisputed title fight against the winner of Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 3 on 9 October.

But Joshua, who has a rematch clause, insists he is in a good mood since reflecting on the second defeat of his professional career.

Joshua wrote on social media: “I’ve watched the fight, analysed my preparations & identified my mistakes. I’ve learnt my lesson.

“Thanks for sending love and checking in. Don’t worry about me. My spirit is strong!”

While Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn insisted his fighter “has got to make changes” for the rematch.

“Weirdly it’s a lot easier to take because you know how good Usyk is, and you always know if you don’t get it right there is a chance you can get beat,” Hearn said.

“The Ruiz fight, I guess we were probably a bit naive at the time, almost walking on air that AJ would steamroll through everyone and that was just one bolt from the blue that you sort of couldn’t get over for weeks. Tonight, you just say ‘it’s sport, you’ve got beaten by the better man, what are you gonna do about it?’

“(Joshua’s) mind is working overtime already, he’s a very deep thinker. He’ll beat himself up for a while...but he dedicates everything he does to the sport. So it’ll cut him deep, but the Ruiz fight, very different. Tonight he got beat by a pound-for-pound fantastic fighter.”

“He’s got to make changes, he’s got to get better. Usyk will probably — I’m pretty sure he’ll be the favourite going into the rematch.”

Speaking ahead of his fight with Wilder, Fury had some sage guidance for Joshua if he takes on former undisputed world cruiserweight champion Usyk again.

Fury said: “My advice to Joshua in the rematch is get stuck in the best way he knows how, put his best foot forward and swing away, Jack, swing away.

“Was I absolutely wounded that (Usyk) won? Yes I was. I was hoping Joshua could win the fight, but he couldn’t – and that’s none of my business.

“The only thing I’m bothered about is beating Deontay Wilder, and that’s the most dangerous heavyweight out there. In my opinion, Wilder beats Joshua, Usyk, all the rest of the division, comfortable – but he cannot beat me.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=entnewsntp

[TitoFan]

It's understandable that Fury would rate Wilder over both Joshua and Usyk. Would make no sense for him to say Wilder would be beaten by either of them. You pump up your opponent... so there's no mistake you're taking on the 2nd best, which of course makes you the best.

In all honesty, I've always felt Wilder has a good chance against Joshua, and not just he's now got two significant losses on his record. Usyk... I'm not so sure about. If Usyk's consummate boxing skills got the better of Joshua, it's certainly not a reach to say Wilder wouldn't touch him (Usyk) with anything significant.

Gotta feel for Fury though. Usyk got to Joshua before he did... and Joshua is now "damaged goods." There goes the mega-fight to top all mega-fights. On the other hand, if Fury beats Wilder, there's no one on the radar that would pose a knockout danger to Fury. Joshua always represented that outside chance. Usyk is too small to pose a knockout threat to Fury.

Fury's right in concentrating on Wilder for now, though. Something tells me that, win or lose, this won't be a repeat of the 2nd fight.

[Master]

Frank Warren tells Anthony Joshua to ‘get rid of all his trainers’ after Oleksandr Usyk defeat

Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren has said Anthony Joshua might have to change his entire coaching team in order to beat Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch.

Ukrainian Usyk outpointed Joshua in London last month to take the Briton’s heavyweight titles, with a second bout between the pair expected to take place next spring.

Warren has now claimed that Joshua must take drastic measures if he is to reverse the result in a rematch with the undefeated Usyk.

Speaking to SecondsOut ahead of Fury’s trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder for the WBC heavyweight belt, Warren said: “Should [Joshua] fight [Usyk] again? If he does what he does last time, I don’t see him beating him. Even then, I think Usyk will get more out of that win than Joshua.

“I just don’t see what Joshua can do any different to win that fight other than get rid of all the trainers around him and try change what he’s doing. Will he do that?

“I said if Usyk’s there at the end he’ll win on points. What I didn’t expect was the way he won. I really thought that AJ would have come out and pose his physical attributes more – his jab, his size – which he didn’t.

“I thought as far as Usyk was concerned, I thought he’d have to roll under him, get underneath his jab and work inside. He didn’t do that, he was out-jabbing the guy with the longer reach and the bigger guy.

“I was quite shocked at that. He hurt him in the fight. He wobbled him early on and certainly in the last round I think the bell saved [Joshua], he would have been stopped otherwise. There was no debate about how he got beat, he got beat.”

Earlier this year, Joshua and Fury were seemingly on the verge of finalising a two-fight deal, but an arbitrator ruled that Fury must first fight Wilder for a third time, with former cruiser-weight Usyk then arriving as Joshua’s mandatory challenger.

Fury fought Wilder to a controversial split draw in December 2018 before stopping the American in the seventh round of their rematch in February 2020.

All the while, Joshua avenged his stoppage loss to Andy Ruiz Jr from June 2019 by defeating the Mexican-American in December of the same year, winning via decision to regain his IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO titles.

A long-awaited, all-British unification bout between Joshua and Fury seems increasingly unlikely, with Fury needing to beat Wilder this Saturday and Joshua required to regain his belts once more in order for the historic contest to come to fruition as desired.

Even then, there could be further hurdles along the way in the form of mandatory challengers.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=entnewsntp