So....Will AJ beat Usyk in the rematch??

[KingOfGlory]

Maybe. Usyk will be older. But now he knows he can outbox and hurt Joshua. If Joshua is more aggressive it could pay off or backfire and get him stopped. If I had to put money on it I'd say Usyk stops him in the rematch.

[Shadoww702]

I think AJ wins the rematch. Just like I thought he would beat Ruiz in that rematch.

[RENE JUNIOR]

no, he will not; If AJ tries some crazy schit he'll be stopped

I definitely can see that happening

[DaNeutral.]

I'd say it is unlikely, certainly not impossible but unlikely. I tipped AJ to win the 1st encounter but knew Usyk was the better technician I just thought AJ would of been able to make more use of his physical advantages.

Now it has become quite clear that he can't. He would get caught if he was more aggressive, even if he was smarter with it and hasn't got the energy levels to keep Usyk occupied enough for Usyk to not take hold of control.

[Frankie Coffeecake]

It's possible but Joshuas mentality makes it improbable.

My fight pick was Joshua but I said if Joshua stands center ring and has a chess match he will lose.

All during fight week I thought to myself, Usyk is slipping in under the radar here, there didn't seem to be much perceived threat, it felt like a routine defence.

I thought Joshua would learn from Ruiz not to take any opponent lightly but he did.

Can Joshua win the rematch, yes of course he can, he has the physical attributes avaliable to him, he didn't land much with any authority on Usyk but did a lot of facial damage, it's not impossible to envisage a bad cut opening up of Joshua catches him with something with a bit more power on it. will he? Probably not because he seems to lack the IQ to change what he needs to.

Joshua has a little bit of the Amir Khan about him where he seems to not want to accept his weaknesses, if you can't accept them you can't work around them.

75/25 Usyk in the rematch but AJ win wouldn't be mind blowing.

[PRINCEKOOL]

Anthony Joshua will win the rematch via stoppage.

I think he lost the first fight in preparation 'Wrong philosophy, and wrong conditioning'.

Joshua should full well know now, that he needs to embrace what won him the Olympic Gold Medal 'And what won him all of his fights prior to Ruiz I'.

Joshua clearly changed his training and lifestyle after Ruiz I, he got a few wins 'But people who objectively watched is fights, knew that he had regressed in a multitude of ways'.

It took for Usyk to beat him, for people to realize 'That his current training approach, was not really building on his fundamental strengths'.

Joshua is a gifted athlete, has the basics of boxing mastered, and can throw combinations. So they are the fundamentals he needs to maximize, power, basics and brutality.

[billeau2]

After beholding Usyk perform amazingly against AJ, and proving many people wrong (including myself), Do you think AJ can win in a rematch?

This is if they have the immediate rematch. We all know Hearn ALWAYS has the immediate rematch clause just in case, so apparently it will happen I assume around spring 2022.

Now, if AJ doesn't win the rematch, where does AJ go from there? Will he just stick with fighting the lower tier of HW for the rest of his career?

Your thoughts

Its always possible. The one thing about the human spirit... we do things against all odds. Women lift things they "cannot" lift... guys survive arctic temperatures before we had clothing technology...

I look at a lot of the British fans that love AJ and much respect... One should believe and support their fighters. There is no shame in saying, "I want AJ to win, so I will make a case for it, and believe it." And when we really look at the odds, given that AJ had some decent rounds, there might be something to that...

Logically? for most its hard to see what AJ can do to win. He has a certain mentality. I think British fighters like Bruno and AJ are decent and sometimes its hard to put that aside... I also think this same problem plagued Lewis, but IMO Lewis conquered this. By the time of his last fight, he was hurting guys... kocking them spark out... mercilessly. But boxing does have a part of it where really well executed technique can win the day.

IMO for AJ to win he has to use his jab and make the fight ugly... get Usyk into fire fights, crash his guard, run him over and hit him as he is trying to regain his balance. Its not likely to me that AJ will win, I do think he may do better this next fight.

[Albanianboxing]

I think Usyk vs Joshua 2 is a very very interesting fight!!! It will be very interesting to see Joshua game plan coming out to start the fight!

I think Usyk wins but AJ has a real shot in this fight! AJ is going to be throwing HUGE BOMBS!!!

[Marchegiano]

That was a pretty clinical fight but you can't count AJ out. He really just needs to develop a few little tricks to deliver some hard punches and he could get Usyk out of there.

I wouldn't have Joshua try to beat Usyk on points or try to knock him out per-se, I'd have him make sure he does more damage to Usyk than Usyk does to him. Before Ali did rope-a-dope the first guy to make a buzz using his elbows and the ropes like that was Roland LaStarza, that is why he's such s big deal when Rocky fights him. In both fights, by all accounts, La Starza was the superior boxer he just couldn't take the punishment. In the second Marciano had a better understanding of what he was in for. So he knew he could not out box LaStarza and if he tried to just knock him out he'd miss too often to hurt him. So what Marciano did was target the guard. He fed into LaStarza's defense and gave Roland exactly what he wanted. He didn't try to get around to guard, he didn't try to land pointing shots or shots that stop a fight or even look good. He aimed for and punched Roland's guard until he broke LaStarza's elbows and he could no longer use that pioneering version of rope-a-dope to any effect and found himself being clobbered out of the ring.

Marciano couldn't box LaStarza or knock LaStarza out but he could hurt LaStarza, he could hit Roland and hurt him so that's all he focused on. I'm not saying all Joshua need to do is hit Usyk's elbows and break them, I'm saying he needs to take that theory. All he has is damage, focus on that and figure out a way to use it to win the fight. Whether it's new baits or just punching every time he punches, whatever, there's a ton of puncher's strategies he just need to figure out which one he can do and focus it on hurting Usyk, not koing him and not beating him on points. Straight damage that fool.

[RENE JUNIOR]

I'd say it is unlikely, certainly not impossible but unlikely. I tipped AJ to win the 1st encounter but knew Usyk was the better technician I just thought AJ would of been able to make more use of his physical advantages.

Now it has become quite clear that he can't. He would get caught if he was more aggressive, even if he was smarter with it and hasn't got the energy levels to keep Usyk occupied enough for Usyk to not take hold of control.

Yeah I mean, I would say a great majority tipped AJ on the first fight.
To me, the rematch is so intriguing and I am definitely not writing AJ off for the rematch.
We'll see what happens though, hopefully the rematch is soon.