Anthony Joshua has every physical advantage over Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch, and will know how to use them, according to new coach Robert Garcia.
The Brit holds a four-inch reach advantage and is three inches taller than his Ukrainian rival, and has been known to weigh in around two-stone heavier. But he opted not to take advantage of those many differences when the pair fought last year, instead sticking to a gameplan in which he attempted to outbox Usyk.
But with a new trainer in the legendary American Garcia, Joshua is expected to change things up drastically for his effort to become a three-time world heavyweight champion. The pair linked up in December, and Garcia has now moved to London to complete the Brit's camp.
“The whole team, everybody around us, is very positive," Garcia said at a press conference. "We have to do whatever is takes. We have to come out with different strategies in case one doesn’t work. We’ll be ready for the fight, Anthony is listening. He believes in us and that’s the most important thing because in the ring he’s got to come out and do what we tell him to do.
"Usyk is a great fighter - I’ve known him since a few years back when he came to my gym a few times to train. He’s a very talented fighter. He’s got very different ways to fight. Seeing the size difference, the height, the reach, the weight, everything is in Anthony’s advantage. We’ve got to take advantage of that. We’ve got to train him to focus on that and come fight night do what we need to do to win.”
Usyk is undefeated as a professional, becoming the undisputed cruiserweight champion after winning Olympic gold in the amateurs. But he struggled with the move to heavyweight at first, labouring to wins over Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora.
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As such, he was made the underdog for his mandatory title challenge against Joshua last September when the Brit's scheduled bout with Tyson Fury for the undisputed title fell through. However, he defied the odds and dominated Joshua on his way to becoming a two-division unified champion.
He is now the favourite to defend his titles, essentially flipping the odds around from their first meeting. But despite the one-sided nature of their first bout, Joshua still holds all of the advantages he did going into their original bout.
The Brit weighed in at 240lb to face Usyk, relatively low by his world championship standards, while the Ukrainian was at a career-high of 221.25lb. But Joshua has tipped the scales as heavy as 254 during his professional career, when he stopped Carlos Takam in Cardiff back in 2017.
