Ahead of the highly anticipated rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk, British heavyweight Joe Joyce has tipped the Ukrainian WBA, IBF and WBO title holder to beat his British opponent.
He claimed that Joshua would need to make massive revolution to beat Usyk and reclaim his belts for a second time, before calling out the Ukrainian fighter.
He told Boxing Social how he thought Joshua would struggle, saying: “I thought as soon as the fight started with him and Usyk, Usyk went straight to work.”
“He knew how to beat Joshua and now that he’s already beaten him, to do it again will be kind of the same. That’s unless Joshua makes some drastic changes.”
“I think it will be a repeat unless Joshua can do something drastically different and just nail him down.”
“Joshua can obviously bang, he has fast hands and decent footwork. He fought the wrong fight when they fought first, he tried to outbox the boxer.”
“I’ve said on multiple occasions he could have gone out there, roughed him up, walked him down, and tried to knock him out. I think that’s what he’s going to have to try and do.”
“I’ve been in the ring with Usyk and I felt like I put on a better performance, Chisora put on a great performance against Usyk. That was much closer than the one against Joshua.”
Joshua lost his three belts for the second time to Usyk after a unanimous points decision back in September 2021, having suffered a shock defeat to Andy Ruiz in 2019, the first of the Brit’s career.
The highly anticipated rematch between Joshua and Usyk has been continuously delayed as a result of broadcasting issues, but an announcement is expected in the next week from Eddie Hearn declaring a date for the fight to take place.
