On August 20, in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs), with the help of a new coach Robert Garcia, will try to get even with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) for the September defeat and return the WBA Super titles , IBF and WBO.
Former world champion and current expert
streaming DAZN American Chris Elgieri suddenly
criticized the choice of the British: “At least on paper, this is a bad choice. After all, Robert is not known for his work with heavyweights. And practically not a single heavyweight fighter came out of his boxing academy. But there is another side of the coin. I understand Joshua’s choice, because I know Robert well. And he has one huge plus in comparison with many other coaches – he himself was a fighter, he was a champion. He knows how to find the right words.”
“It is logical to assume that they first communicated for a while. After all, you don’t just go to the first guy you meet. Perhaps even then Joshua realized that they were speaking “the same language.” And for him it was important, because any fighter wants someone in his corner who knows how to choose the right words. That is, there is logic in his decision, but there is also a minus due to Garcia’s lack of experience in working with heavyweights. But there is a huge and difficult fight ahead, especially for Joshua. Usyk looked fantastic in the first fight. He had a plan for the fight, and he successfully implemented it. He did it once, he knows how to do it the second time, ”Elgieri hints that the favorite is obvious.
Further, the expert began to praise the Ukrainian: “His main trump cards are mobility, maneuverability and high IQ – he sees, easily reads all the opponent’s intentions. Therefore, I’m not sure that Joshua will be able to act according to the plan and, due to this, beat Usyk. He would slow down the Ukrainian with blows to the body. But it’s not easy, because he’s taller. This means that you have to open up at such moments – it can fly into your head. But the manual speed is much higher with Alexander. Do you think they will still try to work on the body? (thinking). I wonder if he can do it… We’ll see… I can’t say that Joshua is known for his torso work. On the other hand, Robert’s fighters are traditionally good at this … “
Meanwhile, Usyk never tires of reminding that there is something more important in the world than boxing: “In 4 days, Russia fired more than 100 missiles at Ukraine.” The public understands this and reacts – light-heavyweight champions from the Russian Federation Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev were forced to box in title fights under the flags of Kyrgyzstan and Canada, respectively.
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