Anthony Joshua is in an excellent position to seize the #1 spot in the heavyweight division if he comes out victorious on July 23rd in his rematch with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk.
It’s hard to overlook WBC belt holder Tyson Fury, but unfortunately, he’s already told the boxing public that he’s retiring after his big win over Dillian Whyte last Saturday night.
For that reason, you can no longer include ‘The Gypsy King’ in the rankings of the best heavyweight. Fury says he just wants to do exhibitions, in WWE and not be involved in the “nerve-wracking” sport.
If Fury ever gets his ambition back, he can come back and try and recapture his #1 perch, but for now, he’s done.
With Fury permanently out of the picture, the two top fighters are Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) and Usyk (19-0, 13 Kos), and they’ll be meeting two months from now, possibly in Saudi Arabia to determine who the top dog is in the division.
Joshua has an excellent chance of winning the rematch because he knows what he did wrong the last time he fought Usyk last September by choosing to box him. AJ wanted to prove that he could outbox Usyk, and that turned out to be a mistake on his part.
Now that Joshua, 32, has had seven months to analyze what he did wrong against the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk, you can bet that he’s going to be using his size, power, and speed to get the better of the smaller heavyweight.
If those things fail to work for Joshua, it’s predictable that he’ll opt to rough him up on the inside by leaning on Usyk, shoving, throwing rabbit punches & low blows to wear down the smaller man.
Ideally, you’d like to see Joshua win without using the slash & burn approach to getting the victory, but AJ is fighting to save his career. If Joshua loses this fight, it’s effectively game over for him as one of the elite guys in the division.
Joshua will have lost three out of his last five fights if he gets beaten by Usyk on July 23rd, and that’s a sign that it’s over with.
It probably won’t matter if Joshua re-shuffles his training team again because it’s not going to help if he can’t take a punch or if his stamina is too deficient for him to compete at the highest levels.
That’s why it’s crucial for Joshua to try everything he can in this fight, and if he needs to resort to roughhouse tactics, oh well.
“Mentally, Joshua seems in limbo at the moment, and he’s got a very, very difficult rematch with Oleksandr Usyk,” said Gareth A. Davies to talkSPORT Boxing. “There’s quite a few heavyweights out there that would beat Anthony Joshua right now.
“Dillian Whyte almost knocked him [Joshua] out the first time they fought each other.”
