Anthony Joshua working on mindset ahead Oleksandr Usyk rematch

Nigeria born British boxer Anthony Joshua is focusing on the quality of his mindset and his approach to sparring before his heavyweight world title rematch with Oleksandr Usyk reports The Mirror.

Joshua is expected to face Usyk later this year for the unified WBA, WBO and IBF belts, after losing them to the Ukrainian in London last September.

The Ukrainian, who was also the first undisputed champion at cruiserweight, defied the odds to win the belts in comfortable fashion from Joshua in front of over 63,000 of his home fans at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

But it's Joshua who will now enter their second fight as the underdog, which has inspired him to change his approach as they prepare to battle it out again.

"Let's focus on quality," Joshua said in an interview with Sky Sports. "Let's focus on what's needed and it has to come from the top down.

"I'm the last piece if the puzzle, I'm the last performance so we're talking about game planning, mindset, brain training, our approach to sparring and what we're getting out of it.

"All of these things, as well as dietary needs, sleep, recovery."

Joshua will also put an emphasis on what he is listening to while training, swapping out music for motivational speeches as he prepares to once again challenge for the belts.

Joshua has lost the titles once before; in June of 2019 he was stopped by Andy Ruiz Jr in a major upset before reclaiming the gold the following December.

"Mindset training in terms of what I'm listening to," Joshua listed as one thing he will be changing.

"Not just musically but like motivational speeches and stuff like that because this is the biggest stage of my career fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world."

And he believes that just turning the tide around for as little as four extra rounds will be enough to see him back to the world titles and on the road to becoming undisputed

"Usyk came up from cruiserweight," Joshua continued. "He's a great fighter, a twelve-round fighter who I wanted to box with for twelve rounds.

"I always had that stigma of not being able to box, being a big stiff bodybuilder so I said 'alright cool, let me practice my boxing,' so I tried practising my boxing with Usyk.

"It didn't go my way in the decision, he won nine rounds I won three, next fight I win four more rounds and I win.

"So let me simplify that matter and I will then get on the road to being undisputed champion again."