Joshua warned over weight gain as he seeks revenge against Usyk
Joshua will get the opportunity to exact revenge on Usyk in Saudi Arabia on August 20
Nigeria-born former heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua has been warned he is making a big mistake by putting on too much weight ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk by boxing legend Andre Ward.
Joshua, 32, relinquished the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight world titles to the Ukrainian last September.
Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight world champion, used his superior fight IQ to outfox Joshua, whom many felt had lost too much weight.
Joshua will get the opportunity to exact revenge on Usyk in Saudi Arabia on August 20.
Joshua has put on more muscle in the build-up to his second meeting with ‘The Cat’, a decision many believe he’s made in order to inflict more damage in the bout.
Like many others, Ward is looking forward to the rematch but he revealed that he wants the former champion to lose a few more pounds to give him a better chance of keeping his stamina in the latter stages of the fight.
In a reported interview with Max on Boxing, as quoted by BoxingScene.com, he said: “Man I’ve been trying to tell Anthony Joshua for the past six or seven years – get the mass off.
“Then you’ll feel faster, you’ll want to throw more punches and you won’t hit that wall midway in the fight where that blood fills up in your muscles and you can’t get the shots off.
“This is tough, I feel like Anthony Joshua is always this moving target, you know psychologically where is he at? Stylistically where is he at? Is he putting on more muscle mass, taking muscle off?
“All these variables sort of answer that question and we don’t have that answer.”
Ahead of the Middle East clash Frank Warren has also perhaps unsurprisingly chipped in with his two cents.
And despite wishing AJ well in the rematch, promoter Warren doesn’t think his bulking will bode well for him against Usyk.
He told Seconds Out: “I’ve seen all these photographs of how big Anthony Joshua has got, [he’s] got a new trainer, good luck to him.
“I hope he wins it… but I just feel that Usyk’s got his number and the big worry is that you can train, you can train and do all these sorts of things.
“You can build your body up but one thing you can’t do is you can’t put muscles on chins.”
