Former unified heavyweight champion Briton Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) on the eve of the rematch with his offender Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) suddenly started philosophical reflections.
In Britain
not happy with this fact.. It is believed that the local fighter has serious mental problems that he never managed to solve on the eve of the second fight – revenge will take place on August 20 in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The first fight took place in September in London (England) – Usyk won by decision of the judges.
How do I take criticism? I try not to pay attention to her. I try to be positive all the time. I try to maintain a positive attitude at home and in my surroundings. How do my two defeats affect this? I will say so. Records are important, because today people forget about your victories very quickly. But I studied the records of the best of the best and I know that there were practically no undefeated ones. Testing yourself against the elite opposition and remaining undefeated at the same time is almost impossible, ”says Joshua.
“In September, after the defeat of Usyk, I knew that I would immediately sign up for an immediate revenge,” says the big man. – And I immediately told the team: “Hey, above your head! What the fuck? The battle is lost, but not the war. Come on! We are warriors! We will fight to the last breath.” This is how I motivated my team. Here is my thinking. And it will remain so until the end of my days. But, I admit, it was very difficult all these months, because defeat is pressing. And the constant transfers were a little depressing. I’m almost 33 years old, and I don’t know how long my health will last. The good thing is that I was successful in business, made smart investments.”
About the first fight with Usyk: “You may not believe it, but I really didn’t want to take him out of the ring, I wanted to outbox him. I wanted to see how good I am at pure boxing. But it turned out that I was not physically ready to box at that pace for 12 rounds. It turned out that I had not properly prepared psychologically. Even that entry into the ring was wrong. It’s just that these places are dear to me. There were many acquaintances in the crowd, everyone wanted to say hello. Psychology is very important. You need to approach the fight in peace. Maximum concentration, total focus.
Joshua suddenly compared himself to Mike Tyson, but after a leading question, he immediately retreated: “I wanted to beat Usyk by scoring points like Tyson. So what if he was a puncher? Look, Mike was sent to us from heaven to enjoy his talent. I can imitate him in some ways, but I can never be like him. After all, he was a unique specimen.
Meanwhile, Mike Tyson himself said: “Usyk is too fast for Joshua.” And here is the opinion of the Ukrainian heavyweight Sirenko: “Perhaps it will be stopped ahead of schedule.”
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