The holder of three world titles in the heavyweight division (over 90.7 kg), Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) gave
interview for my YouTube channel USYK17.
In a conversation, Alexander spoke about the complexity of the training camp, named the best sparring partner and evaluated the former British champion Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) in the second joint fight.
– What was the most difficult thing in this training camp?
— Its duration. The hardest thing was to go to training and say that you like it, that you want to train today, or are you in a good mood, do you have motivation. By the way, as for motivation, everyone can do it with motivation, this is understandable. When you don’t have it, when you don’t want it, when you don’t like anything, nothing makes you happy … Now modern people like to say: “When you are completely depressed” [смеётся] and you don’t want anything, then you find for yourself some moments that make you say to yourself: “Sasha, get together, go train and do your job 100%. If you don’t do this, they’ll just fill your cabin. every round.” They beat me in sparring. Sometimes. This is true. But those guys who are not in the camp for the first time, they understand what is happening. And even when we communicate, they say: “A week is left and you will already start to wind up, give back.” So it’s hard to learn, but not easy to fight.
– Not easy?
– Not easy. The duel is a holiday for me. This is a huge holiday for me when I box. Here I can already improvise, show the combinations that we have worked out, but no one forbids me to improvise. The main thing is that this improvisation does not turn into something bad.
– You touched on the topic of sparring partners, did you like how they worked? Did they earn their fees?
– I think yes. They worked very nicely. We have a TV in training, where fights are shown. There, my first fight with Joshua was constantly spinning in a circle. Malik Scott is our old friend, he pulled the guys up to watch the fight, and he worked out those moments that Anthony does, and they worked.
You always singled out Malik Scott.
He does what needs to be done. He can very much copy who you box with.
- Usyk returned to the house near Kyiv, where the Russian invaders visited – photo
– Sasha, I have information that in this camp you beat sparring partners like never before.
– It was so. But you know how it turned out, first I beat, then they beat me, then I started to beat. It came in such waves. This is the first or third month, then I had a month of hard work when they gave me back. And then, when I got out of the pit, I gave.
– Who was the most difficult in sparring?
“It was not easy with all the guys. Martin Bakole was in my camp for the second time. Such a very good guy.
“Was there one who patted you?”
Yes, Bacol. I think he is the one that stands out.
– Would you agree that Anthony was much better physically prepared for the rematch than for the first fight?
– He was physically ready, but it seems to me that he put the emphasis on one heavy blow to hit. The fact that at the end of the ninth round he had successful combinations – I really missed it there and swam. But he added to this fight.
What exactly did he add?
– Physically a little. He was collected, his hands were collected, he reacted less to some deceptive actions. More prepared.
