In Jeddah tomorrow night, Anthony Joshua will be aiming to join a small club as he looks to become a three-time world heavyweight champion by getting his WBA, WBO and IBF titles back from Oleksandr Usyk.
There are only five men who have a proper claim to have won the world heavyweight title three times — the first was Muhammad Ali and the last was Vitali Klitschko. It would take the best win of Joshua’s career to achieve it, although he has a good record in rematches.
The two times he has faced an opponent who had previously beaten him, he has come out triumphant. In a British title fight in 2015, he knocked out Dillian Whyte, who had been the first of three men to beat him as an amateur, plus on his previous trip to Saudi Arabia, in 2019, he outpointed Andy Ruiz Jr, who had stopped him in a huge upset in New York that previous summer.
The loss by Whyte was when they were both raw amateurs, while losing his titles to Ruiz could be put down as a mistake — he knocked Ruiz down, waded in to try to finish the fight and was caught by a punch from which he never really recovered.
There is no writing off the defeat by Usyk as an error, though. At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September, Usyk outboxed Joshua, beating him to the punch and often outjabbing the taller man. The change in tactics needed by Joshua is largely obvious. He needs to throw more punches and make his pressure count.
Last time, when Joshua’s jab did not land, he often lacked the confidence to throw the big right that would follow the rangefinder. There was little sign of his left hook, or indeed many body punches, a traditional weapon to slow down a fast-moving fighter. Joshua admits that Usyk’s southpaw style bothered him last time, while he has often looked less comfortable when facing smaller fighters rather than someone he can just punch straight at.
All these lessons will have been pumped into his head by Robert Garcia, his new American trainer, and Angel Fernandez, who has stayed as part of the team. Having had too many voices trying to give him advice in the last fight, it will be interesting to see how Garcia and Fernandez operate if the going gets tough.
Usyk will be expecting a more active Joshua this time and will have prepared accordingly. Stories of feats of endurance in the Ukrainian’s training would seem to show a boxer getting ready for a very physical fight.
But Usyk’s style does not require him to be particularly fast on his feet. The former undisputed world cruiserweight champion is an expert at working angles, often in the pocket, and throwing an opponent off their rhythm while creating openings for himself.
Usyk is a man inspired, with a war-torn nation behind him. He is said to have dropped 10kg during his time in Ukraine after the Russian invasion when he joined his country’s armed forces reserves. He has put that weight back on, and probably more since he left the country to train for tomorrow’s fight.
Originally aimed for April, the fight was then pencilled in for June 11 and then twice pushed back again, to July 30 and then August 20, at Usyk’s request so he could be ready. In the circumstances it would have been difficult for Joshua’s team to refuse, a situation that would probably have led to an ugly fragmentation of the belts, making a subsequent fight for the undisputed title impossible.
In the first fight Joshua looked gun shy, caught waiting for a golden opening that never really came
The Ukrainian exudes confidence, while Joshua finds himself in the unusual position of underdog. It is up to Joshua to change the narrative and unless he has significant success in the early rounds, it is difficult to see him winning.
Not that it is beyond Joshua. But while in the first fight he at times looked gun shy, caught waiting for a golden opening that never really came, there has to be less caution this time. Otherwise, Usyk will retain the titles and maybe even stop Joshua late on.
