Ukrainian ex-world champion in light heavyweight Alexander Gvozdyk shared his thoughts on the upcoming rematch of his compatriot, WBA / WBO / IBF heavyweight title holder Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) and Briton Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs), which is scheduled for August 20 in Saudi Arabia, and also commented on the preliminary information about the return to the ring of the former champion in three divisions, Ukrainian Vasily Lomachenko (16-2, 10 KOs).
– What do you think about your friend Usyk, who took the titles from Joshua? It was a great fight.
— Oh yes, that’s right. Brilliant performance. And I believe that we will see it again. This is my personal opinion, but I think that we will see something similar to what was in the first fight. I don’t know, now Joshua has changed his team, his coach… I know Robert Garcia very well, because I had my first 5-6 fights under him. He was in my corner, he was my head coach. He knows what he’s doing and he’s a great, very talented coach. People say he doesn’t have much heavyweight experience, but I’ll say this.
Now Joshua is a mature experienced heavyweight. It does not need to be taught anything new, it is not at the initial stage. If you told me that Robert would coach Joshua in his professional debut and be his coach for the rest of his career, I would say that this is probably not a good option, but I don’t know. My opinion is based on Robert’s lack of heavyweight experience. But in this situation, we have Joshua already an experienced heavyweight who knows everything, who is able to do everything. And I think that Robert is the best option to fill those gaps in the first fight, which will make the fight more interesting.
- Usyk didn’t fight the real Joshua – British expert
On the other hand, Usyk is a professional. He is unique. If you look at how he fights some middle man – he will do what is necessary and no more to beat him, maybe it will not be impressive what happened in his career. But believe me, I know him very well, when he needs to jump above his head, he will jump. He has this unique quality that separates him from the average and great fighters.
And he strongly believes in God.
Yes, it helps him too.
“I saw your friend Loma want to fight again.
— Well, I don’t know much information about it, because I haven’t contacted him for a long time. But if they speak, then they are ready. They never say something without a reason. And I believe that all this time he has been training hard, because he is very determined, I would say, obsessed with boxing. This stupid invasion has restricted him from fighting. Now he has more important problems, but I believe that he trained. If he says he’s ready, trust me, he’ll be ready. He’s not the kind of guy who jumps into the ring unprepared.
- It is not clear why Lomachenko does not express his position – Alexander Krasyuk
Source:
When the smoke clears
