Promoter Eddie Hearn is confident that his charge Anthony Joshua will bounce back in his expected rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.
England’s Joshua lost his heavyweight titles (IBF, WBA, IBO, WBO) to the Ukrainian whiz by 12-round unanimous decision at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last Saturday night.
Joshua, 31, reportedly had a rematch clause in place. After the bout, he quickly informed the public that he had every intention of pursuing a return bout.
Hearn believes Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) utilized the wrong game plan and expects him to shine in the potential rematch.
“AJ got it wrong,” Hearn told IFL TV in an interview held Monday, two days after the fight. “He tried to box Oleksandr Usyk even though he was probably told that’s not the way to do it. That’s the way he chose to do it, and he believed he could outbox him and break him down and he didn’t.
“It’s frustrating because he can box 20 times better than that. And, he will. And, now, the operation is revenge. That’s all that matters. That’s all he’s thinking about.”
The southpaw Usyk, a former unified cruiserweight champion, was able to prevent Joshua from finding his groove by using a flurry of feints, jabs, and lead left hands. By the final seconds of the 12th round, Usyk had Joshua nearly out on his feet.
“Spoke to [Joshua] today,” Hearn said. “Had it out with him on the phone. He’s absolutely devastated.”
“All he’s thinking about for the next six months is getting his belts back and beating Oleksandr Usyk,” Hearn continued. “Today that begins. Or yesterday it began. That operation is underway.”
Hearn expressed his disappointment in the vitriol sent towards Joshua in the wake of his loss.
“He’ll be written off,” Hearn said. “It’s amazing how you can go from being this unified heavyweight champ, ‘he’s unbelievable,’ to ‘he’s useless.’ We’ve seen it before. He’s been through it again.
“It’s disappointing to not get as much support when he was the one who chose to take on the challenge. If you want, he can take easy fights and never get beaten. I said this before, give him the respect of taking Usyk. He might be pound-for-pound number one, Usyk. He’s certainly pound for pound number two. [Joshua has] gotta use that to drive him. He wants it more than ever.”
A rematch could take place in the first quarter of 2022 somewhere on British soil. In the post-fight press conference, the 34-year-old Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) expressed his interest in having the rematch take place in his homeland of Ukraine.
