ESPN boxing expert, former world champion in two categories, American Andre Ward, answered questions from local media after another boxing evening of Top Rank Promotions in the United States.
American journalists of course
questioned an expert on the past rematch between the unified heavyweight champion (over 90.7 kg) Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) and former British champion Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), which ended with Usyk’s victory on points.
Report from vRINGe: Fight Usyk – Joshua. ZSU
– We want to hear your reaction to the rematch between Usyk and Joshua.
– I think Joshua looked better (than in the first fight). But that just wasn’t enough.
Usyk was able to do sort of what you did as a fighter. He thought, he moved, he played…
– Usyk has too many features. Too much IQ for Joshua. Without disrespect to Joshua, I still respect what Joshua has done as an amateur and as a professional. I’m not blaming Joshua, but it’s just a fact. You fight a certain style for a long time, you build that muscle mass, you can look like the best of all time against certain guys, and you don’t work on your game, you don’t evolve – it’s the same. He has an amazing right hand that flies like a rocket. But if you take this element away from him, drag him into deep waters and make him think, then you can see how mental fatigue comes. He sometimes didn’t know what to do and those body shots are exhausting. It all comes from this. Usyk applied too many features.
- Vasily Lomachenko: “Usyk is on another level!”
You said he looked much better. Is this all because of Robert Garcia’s contribution?
“I think he had to. Garcia didn’t exist before. And then I saw Joshua punch to the body. Not perfect, of course, but he worked on the body. You saw how he tried to keep his own early in the fight and play the role of a big fighter. It’s just hard to keep going like this. People don’t understand. It’s funny how the style that is most disrespected in boxing is the style that typically dominates. If Usyk had fought wrong, we probably wouldn’t have this conversation. It would be a 50/50 situation. But if he takes away your strengths and uses those features, it’s a 70/30 situation, or a 60/40 situation. This style, these features, you need to start respecting them a little more. Everyone, not just some people.
I don’t want to say anything bad about Joshua now. I know he lost and I don’t want to talk about what I saw. What they saw, they saw. Very often for fans and the media, when a fighter wins, it covers all the bad, all the sins, all the mistakes. But if you make a living from it, you must understand the good, but see the bad.
– Do you see someone who can compete with Usyk now?
— Tyson Fury. It’s not an easy fight for any of them. It looks like we’ll get our first undisputed heavyweight champion sometime next year. The last one was Lennox Lewis in 1999 or 2000. I love that. I see two guys. Usyk said I don’t want to fight anyone else. He knew that Tyson Fury had not retired. It looks like he wants to fight Usyk. It reminds me of the eighties, nineties, early 2000s – since you are the coolest here, I am also the coolest and I will fight you, and you will fight me. That’s what time it is and that’s what I want you to demand from these guys. That’s why I love it.
Who will you choose as the winner in this fight?
“Oh guys, no comment now. This is a tough fight.
- Tyson Fury reacts to Usyk-Joshua 2 fight