Popular British tutor Dave Caldwell gave
interview for a local news portal.
In a conversation, the coach expressed his opinion about the upcoming rematch between the unified IBF / WBO / WBA heavyweight champion (over 90.7 kg) Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) and ex-champion from Britain Anthony Joshua (24- 2, 22 KO), which is scheduled for August 20 in Saudi Arabia.
Caldwell has doubts that Joshua will fit the style of American coach Robert Garcia. The coach sees the Ukrainian as the favorite, but points out that no one knows how the Russian war against Ukraine affected Usyk the fighter.
“That’s interesting. Robert Garcia is a fantastic coach. He’s worked with some fantastic fighters. But that doesn’t mean it will work for every fighter. You can want a fighter to do something, but if he’s not built to do it — then it might not work.”
“I’ve seen a lot of fighters that have worked with Garcia. Top guys, solid, solid, tough fighters. They can take punches with gloves. I don’t dig under him, but just from what I’ve seen, I don’t know if that’s the kind of fighter Joshua: Usyk hits hard enough. It was different when you’re against a guy who can’t shake you at all. But in the first fight, we saw Usyk hit hard enough to count. And if you give Usyk ” gloves” – he uses “gloves” to deliver his clean shots. It’s interesting.”
It was something. Usyk beat Joshua – reportage WMMAA on first fight
“Joshua knows he needs to change a lot of things from the first fight. I think the whole approach was wrong to try to outbox Usyk. He uses his size, he will try to dominate physically, but he also needs to get into that position intelligently. I remember when Usyk was in the cruiserweight and everyone thought that (Marco) Hook could hit. Everyone said that Hook would just go through Usyk. And Hook just shot everything – but Usyk is created for this”.
“Remember how Usyk fought Joe Joyce in the amateurs? Joe Joyce is a big moose. He went for him, and Usyk just took him apart, boxing. doing so”.
“Of course it’s a different fight now. Joshua is very good at mid-range combos. He’s very good, he’s very fast, he can hit. If he gets to Usyk, I’ll never say he can’t knock him out. But he has to to enter this position safely enough, but aggressively. He needs to take away his “legs”. As long as Usyk has “legs”, Usyk is my favorite in this fight. I think he needs to take his legs away from him, work on the body, stake Usyk in front of you, and then he can start throwing his punches. It’s an interesting fight, a very good fight.”
Cuban coach told how to beat Usyk, compared the strength of Joyce and Haye
“Like I said, we’re on the other side. We don’t see them (Joshua and Garcia) work, we don’t work with them. You don’t know if it will work. be a brilliant move, or it could be the wrong move. People will appreciate it on fight night. What I know for sure is that Joshua has a good psychology. He is a student of this sport. He will learn what he did wrong, he will learn what he wants from him Garcia, and he’s adapting to it, but it’s one thing to adapt to it with a helmet and 20-ounce gloves, and it’s another thing to do it on fight night against the calm, calculating, sensible Usyk. [указывает на голову]”.
“How do I see the fight go? I just think Joshua needs to improve too much. I’m not saying he can’t do it, but I would say that Usyk is my favorite. I thought about it before the first fight, and I just think that Usyk, his level of intelligence, his punching power is more than you think and his boxing ability is brilliant. Yes, I would say Usyk will win.”
“Time after the first fight (for Usyk) could have gone two ways. One way is what I was talking about is growth in the division. The more time he spends in the heavyweights, the more he grows. But also Usyk had his own situation. He fought in the war and you don’t know how it affected him mentally. People will say, “What are you making excuses for?” No, that’s reality. That’s something we don’t know. It’s not like he broke his arm or got into a car accident. This is some serious shit. I don’t know it because I’ve never been in that position, and thankfully I shouldn’t. What his people, family, friends, and things went through. You don’t know You don’t know how much it will take from him as a fighter As I said this fight is very intriguing for me I don’t think it’s just black and white This fight is very dangerous for Usyk because AJ is bigger. If he gets it right, if they work with Robert Garcia, that’s a big deal. Then Joshua could be a much better fighter, etc. when we see how their plan is implemented. It will be good and interesting.”
Oleksandr Usyk called the lack of Anthony Joshua