Tyson Fury believes Anthony Joshua needs to target the body in order to defeat Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua will search for redemption in his second meeting with Usyk this Saturday night at the Jeddah Super Dome in Saudi Arabia. 'AJ' came under fire after trying to out-box the skilful Ukrainian last September, which was a vastly different approach to his usually aggressive style.
A win for the British heavyweight in the mega-money sequel this weekend could see him thrust into a position to call out WBC champion Fury who could still fight for the undisputed titles despite vacating his Ring Magazine belt. On his social media, the 'Gypsy King' believes he has shown Joshua the key to defeating Usyk, with the caption: "This is how Anthony Joshua needs to attack Oleksandr Usyk’s body. I know the blown-up middleweight can’t take body shots."
Fury then proceeds to fire a series of thudding body shots into boxing trainer Andy Lee who took the damaging blows with a pad on his torso. The 'Gypsy King' then asked his trainer what he thought of the work, to which he replied: "Listen, without this [pad] I would be dead."
The WBC champion has frequently questioned Usyk's size as a heavyweight, with the current unified champion having moved up from cruiserweight where he reigned as undisputed king. Usyk struggled in his second fight at heavyweight against Fury's former rival Derek Chisora who adopted a physical and aggressive approach which initially unsettled Joshua's conqueror.
However Joshua failed to use his significant size and reach advantages in his meeting with Usyk, instead struggling to land while his opponent boxed his way to victory. 'AJ' has since parted ways with long-term trainer Rob McCracken and has appointed Robert Garcia in a bid to formulate his revenge plan.
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It will be the second time Joshua will bid for revenge after overturning defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr back in 2019, but this time he will likely need a more powerful approach to overcome his slick rival. Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn has pointed out that Joshua has now accepted his mistakes from the first fight, and agreed with Fury's claim that he must attack to the body.
“For a long time he was quite rebellious and said I could have beaten him like that and when he sat down with Robert they saw a way to beat him," Hearn said. "He has finally accepted the mistakes he made in the first fight and that is what he is saying now. You have to just get in there and be you.
"What you have to do is cut him off and f****** hit him anywhere you want around the body. He doesn’t like it around the body, he said after the fight Usyk‘ that was a hard night’s work’ and he didn't even hit him."
