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0 Anthony Joshua faced Oleksandr Usyk for the first time since losing his heavyweight titles last year when the two boxers met at a press conference on Tuesday to announce their August 20 rematch in Saudi Arabia.
The two fighters went head to head on the stage. It turned into an extended face off with neither man willing to break away from their first staredown since the fight.
Usyk tormented Joshua over 12 rounds in September at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London to hand the Watford heavyweight a unanimous decision loss and the second defeat of his professional career.
Anthony Joshua will take on Oleksandr Usyk a second time this summer
Neither has boxed since but they will fight a rematch this summer in Saudi Arabia with Joshua under pressure to reclaim the unified WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles and recapture his position in the division.
Both Joshua and Usyk won gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Ukraine’s Usyk went on to become the undisputed champion at cruiserweight. Against Joshua he proved that he could handle a leading heavyweight and is now considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world today.
But the Briton is adamant that he has learned from their first fight and will make the necessary changes to win second time around.
“God willing I’ll perform and I’ll become three-time heavyweight champion of the world,” Joshua said.
“The great thing is I’ve got a second chance. What got me into boxing in the first place – when I was a youngster I got in a little bit of trouble every now and again and I was blessed with a second chance and I found boxing. And I took it with both hands. So if you know me and a lot of my story, you know I’m the comeback king.
“You can put me down. But it’s difficult to keep me down.”
Usyk, measured in his approach as always, calmly said, “As we all know we are not in the best condition at the moment back at home [in Ukraine] but we are doing what we have to do. We are doing our job. Together with my team we are working hard to achieve our goals. I never made some very loud and bright speeches. All I did was I just worked hard in my training camp and in my gym. That’s what I’m going to do until the date of the fight and then I will enter the ring and will make you happy with my boxing.”
Joshua did reverse his first professional loss when he outpointed Andy Ruiz in another Saudi Arabian rematch in 2019. But he acknowledges he will have to change his tactics for this August bout with Usyk.
To that end he has brought in a new trainer, Robert Garcia to join Angel Fernandez in his corner. “Sometimes if you keep things simple you can achieve great things,” he said. “Robert’s been great in the camp.
“Definitely the hunger’s still there.”
“Blips happen, things happen in life,” he added. “We’re still on the road, still on the road to undisputed for sure.”
‘Joshua fought the wrong fight against Usyk’
New trainer Robert Garcia explains why AJ will be different in the rematch
Anthony Joshua has brought in a new trainer for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk with Robert Garcia joining his team.
The American insists Joshua will be a different fighter by the time he enters the ring for the rematch. “I see a different Anthony now. The way he thinks, the way he talks, everything he’s practising, everything he’s doing in the gym,” Garcia said.
“I think he fought the wrong fight [before against Usyk] and that’s the past. That happened already. Usyk was the better man. Congratulations to him but come August 20 we’re going to do whatever it takes to win those titles. I know he can do it. He’s the bigger man, the stronger man, he’s got the reach advantage so we’re going to take advantage of all that and come that day I think without a doubt we’re going to have a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.”
As a team Garcia says they are highly motivated. “I want my first heavyweight champion of the world. I’ve had 14 world champions. He will be my 15th but he will be my first heavyweight champion of the world and that’s big, big for me too,” he added.
“We’ve got to be prepared for everything. Usyk is a great fighter. He’s got skills, he’s got reflexes, he’s got accuracy, he’s got everything. But I think Anthony has all the tools to beat him.”
