JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Towering Briton
Anthony Joshua is fighting for his career on
Saturday against Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who can boost the morale of his
compatriots in war-torn Ukraine by retaining his world heavyweight belts in
Saudi Arabia.
اضافة اعلان
Joshua, 32, has
much on the line as he strives to become a three-time world champion and
perhaps spark fellow Briton
Tyson Fury into performing another U-turn on
retiring and set up a blockbuster unifying title bout.
Back-to-back
defeats by Usyk, who outboxed him in London last September, would be a
career-crippling setback for the
2012 Olympics super heavyweight gold medalist
who also crashed to a surprise TKO against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Usyk, the
undefeated former cruiserweight world champion, won on a unanimous decision in
only his third professional fight as a heavyweight.
In response,
Joshua has recruited respected trainer Robert Garcia and is hinting at a more
aggressive approach against the mobile and unpredictable southpaw.
“It’s all about
the fight,” Joshua said at the weigh-in, where he maintained his 10kg weight
advantage over Usyk.
“I’m just ready
for 12 rounds, 100 percent. Anything shorter than that, it’s a bonus.”
Stopping the
19-0 Ukrainian would be quite a feat.
Usyk has never
been knocked out in 129 outings, including in his outstanding 95–15 amateur
career which like Joshua saw him win gold at the 2012 Olympics in the
heavyweight division.
He has knocked
out 13 opponents since turning pro.
The 35-year-old
also has the enormous incentive of fighting for a country that has been defying
a
Russian invasion since February.
The bout will be
screened free of charge across Ukraine.
“We had enough
time to study each other,” Usyk said this week. “We were born to compete for
life, for belts, for everything. The one who does not compete, does not win.”
‘People wanted him
to fight’
Following the invasion Usyk volunteered as a soldier and returned to
Ukraine before being advised by senior officials to accept the rematch against
Joshua.
“He was in touch
with high-ranking military officers and he visited the hospitals with injured
soldiers,” said his promoter, Alexander Krassyuk.
“In every
conversation, he heard words of blessing and support to take the rematch.
People wanted him to fight.”
Usyk appeared in
Cossack dress and sang a resistance song on stage in the fight’s build-up,
taking inspiration from a surge in nationalist pride following the invasion.
Juggling,
marathon swims, 100km bike rides, and even a coin-tossing party-piece — he
threw four coins into the air at the same time and caught them separately as
they fell — have all been part of the preparations for the charismatic
pugilist.
The second world
heavyweight fight in
Saudi Arabia, after Joshua took his revenge against Ruiz
in late 2019, has been accompanied by accusations of Saudi “sports washing” —
using sports events to detract from its human rights record.
This week it
emerged that a Saudi woman had been jailed for 34 years for posting tweets critical
of the government, a case that the United Nations called “appalling”.
Also on Saturday’s card,
Somali-born Briton Ramla Ali will fight the Dominican Republic’s Crystal Garcia
Nova in the first women’s professional boxing match in the conservative kingdom.
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