Former light middleweight world champion, and now boxing commentator and analyst Sergio Mora shared his thoughts on the upcoming rematch between Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) and Briton Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs), which will take place on August 20 in Saudi Arabia.
Recall that Usyk will defend the WBA, WBO and IBF world titles, which he won last September when he went to England and defeated Joshua on points.
“Many of those in the know will tell you that it will be difficult for Joshua to make the adjustments needed to beat a boxing master like Usyk,” Mora says in an interview.
Vegas Insider. – In the first fight, we saw that Joshua does not give an account of what is happening. He didn’t know what to do – be the aggressor, cut the corners of the ring, or fight from a position of strength. He just got lost, you could see it. And he was almost stopped at the end. Flashbacks from the first Andy Ruiz fight were there.”
“Now he has brought in a new coach in the form of Robert Garcia,” reminds Sergio. “He’s got a new mentality, a killer dog mentality, and Joshua will need that. It will be necessary, because it will not be a confrontation of strength. It will be a battle of wits, and Joshua had obvious problems with that. I don’t know if Robert will be able to instill this animal mentality in Joshua, or maybe he already has it, but we know for sure that Usyk is completely fine with this. He’s just an amazing boxer.”
After deliberating, Mora went straight to the forecast:
“I am sure that the aggression that Joshua will have to use to win will play into the hands of Usyk. So I’m in favor of Usyk’s victory by stoppage. We saw glimpses of this at the end of last year’s fight, and I think Usyk will be able to finish what he started in the 10-11 rounds this time. I think he can do it.”
Usyk and Joshua officially weighed in today.
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