Linda Ximba
Four heavyweight championship belts will be on the line when Oleksander Usyk takes on Anthony Joshua on Saturday night at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Usyk, who held the WBA ‘super’, WBC, WBO and IBF cruiserweight belts, had only two fights in the heavyweight division before challenging Joshua for the WBA/WBO/IBF and IBO heavyweight belts, winning on a comfortable 12-round points decision at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last September.
The smaller and slick-moving 35-year-old Usyk was in control throughout the 12 rounds against the slow moving and sluggish 32-year-old Joshua.
It was only Joshua’s second defeat since losing his belts to Andy Ruiz on a shock seventh-round stoppage.
Joshua, a 2012 Olympic gold medallist, subsequently split from his long-time trainer Rob McCracken and is now trained by the former world junior lightweight champion Robert Garcia.
It has not been easy for Usyk since winning the belts, he returned to Ukraine to join the army in the fight against Russia.
At a press conference this week showed he had his war-torn Ukraine in his thoughts when he burst into a song.
“We were born to compete for life, for belts, for anything,” he said.
“The one who does not compete does not live. All our lives are competition, for anything, something, for somebody. That’s why we’re competing.”
After the stare down with his opponent, the champion raised both arms and belted out a Ukrainian song, with his countrymen and women in attendance joining along.
On the other hand Joshua feels he has learned from their first meeting as he bids to become a three-time world champion.
“I know what he’s going to do, I know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to go change the narrative. I’m the author of my own movie. I can change the narrative.
“I took myself to the United States, worked with some new trainers. I just wanted to kind of revamp things. I’m going to be 33 in a couple of months,” the Brit added.
Image source: @MatchroomBoxing
