By Shaun Murphy-
Anthony Joshua has been told he must bully Oleksandr Usyk like he is the Ukrainian’s ‘big brother’ when the pair meet in Saturday’s world title rematch.
Holyfield’s comments come ahead of Joshua’s must win fight this weekend in Saudi Arabia, where he bids to regain his championship belts he lost to the former cruiserweight world champion last September.
The former undisputed world heavyweight champion, who was the first cruiserweight world champion to replicate his success at heavyweight, believes Joshua has the edge in this fight if his goes into it with the big brother mentality, and bully his rival.
Joshua, who has hired Garcia in his corner for this weekends big clash, is expected to be very aggressive as he attempts to correct the damage caused when he unwisely tried to match the talented Usyk for boxing skills.
The Londoner has been told again and again over the months, that he must adopt a toe to toe aggressive approach on Saturday, if he is to have any chance of becoming world champion again. Holyfield is not sure whether Joshua will be able to implement the necessary aggression to avenge his loss. Another defeat to Usyk will spell the end of Anthony Joshua as Britain’s brightest hope, although the wealthy sportsman has made a fortune of over £100m from the sport, after winning an olympic medal in the London 2012 olympic games.
Joshua was originally scheduled to face Tyson Fury in 2021, when the gypsy king was forced to meet Deontey Wilder for a rematch contest, after the American took legal action to enforce the action packed trilogy in which Fury emerged victorious last October. He retained his Wbc title, and has so far retired.
Joshua had performed poorly the month before , allowing Usyk to dictate the pace from start to finish, in an embarrassing affair that saw him lose for the second time, damaging his reputation. He has made his intentions to smash Usyk up very clear, by going to war with him.
Capable
Holyfield told Sky Sports: “I know both of the guys are capable of winning, it’s just who does it that night when the pressure happens. The fact of the matter is how a person thinks. I knew what my thinking was going to be in there.
“I always said that every guy that got the best of me was a guy lighter than me with fast hands, I sat there watching. But that’s what big guys used to do when they were in front of me, I was so good they sat there watching and then the fight is over.”
“It ain’t impossible [for Joshua], all it takes is one shot with him. The point of the matter – is he going to be aggressive enough to go out and do it?”
“Bowe was a boxer and a puncher, he was a big guy,” added the former world champion. “The first fight, because me and him were good buddies, I talked too much with him so we shared too much information.
“So he tells me when the fight starts, ‘if you don’t run, I’m gonna knock you out’.
“I didn’t run, I took it toe-to-toe and so by him being bigger, he threw the bigger shots so that made me not run out of gas, but brought me down.
“On the second time, I moved around, he couldn’t keep up with me moving around, then I beat him up.
“Of course if you go with a bigger guy that is a bigger puncher than you and he’s hitting you more than you hit him, you’re going to get tired because you’ve got all that weight on you.
Boxing legend: Evander Holyfield Image:twitter.com