He is definitely going to come in heavier in the rematch and will go for broke from the first bell. My prediction, Usyk will ride the storm comfortably like a boss, he might end up countering a sloppy careless AJ, AJ will end up gassing and Usyk will pounce on him and get the stoppage.
10% chance he catches Usyk and knocks him out 90% chance he fails and gasses out... with Usyk KOing him instead
Usyk goes into a defensive shell, skips around the ring for a round, until AJ gasses himself out, and then violently KO's a dead on his feet AJ in round 2.
240 is the perfect Joshua weight. He doesn't need more weight. He had to fight like the bigger guy on the ring. He had to bully Usyk, and make it dirty, be way more aggressive and even a ***** war. He literally tried to box the whole match against way better technical boxer, who is also way faster on his feet. His gameplan was all wrong. Don't count him out tho.
I would say 8.7% vs 91.3%. Tend to agree that going for broke is AJ'S best chance against Usyk, but Usyk will most likely survive and come home strongly with a better chance for a KO. That being said, if the judges give AJ 3-4 early rounds say, then they will have a stronger case for giving AJ the fight, which they couldn't do with the type of shut-out Usyk pitched. The 115-113 was blatantly a paid off judge going with the "give A-side all the early rounds and trust there will be at least a few later rounds that get them over the line". It is why there are hugely lopsided scorecards and why when this happens there should be governance in place to perform an investigation.
The knockouts inflicted on him by Ruiz and even by Usyk (the bell saved him!) will never leave him. They are indelibly imprinted on his soul. If he shows up at the rematch in Valuev version at the first useful moment, Usik will bomb his glass chin and the bad memories will start to shake again his legs and.... lights out! He's done and he risks the career in the rematch. USyK is not fat Ruiz. Better if he gives up.
Joshua needs to rack up those early rounds, and he only has to be competitive to do so going by one of the judges giving him round 1 and 2 which were daylight rounds for Usyk. Those were as clear as you could get and Matchroom still had him winning them on one card. I think the Ruiz Jr plan could be in full effect. Jab and run away, the decision will be far more contentious but we know if AJ can just make rounds close to even he'll nick them.
Needs to forget about boxing him and concentrate on fighting in bursts. Going for broke wont work against usyk. He needs to work on cutting off the ring...cornering him then throw with reckless abandon. Body shots especially for the first 6 rounds. To me thats an obvious gameplan. The plan of standing centre ring was stupid all along.
He gets knocked out its that simple. Usyk took some big shots, and stood right in front of him. Everytime AJ got hit with a big shot he wobbled, and almost got stopped in the last round. If there was 10 seconds more to that round no doubt the ref would have stopped the fight in my mind.
Easier said than done. AJ does not have the chin, heart and gas tank to do this. He is well aware of his limitations
He either wins in dominating fashion or fails gasses out and gets circles run around him and probably stopped or quits in his corner.
I predicted a Usyk win and was rooting for him. Still, it would be foolish to count AJ out. If AJ slams on the gas in the first round to go for the KO, Joshua could gas. He will most likely gas but he has no chance of winning a boxing match with Usyk. Usyk is too skilled and disciplined. AJ isn’t going to turn into Lennox any time soon so don’t expect him to pump a stiff jab and create openings for big shots. His best chance is to try to bully Usyk and throw bombs early. Usyk is smart and his punches hurt AJ more than I thought they would. AJ could get caught with something that takes him out or at least puts him down while trying to deliver a big punch. That’s the risk you take when you throw big punches. It’s one he has to take because he didn’t box poorly like a Wilder type, he just had major problems with the movement and southpaw stance of Usyk. Also, Usyk has a crazy good gas tank so don’t expect him to fade. He looked sharp in the 12th round when he almost put AJ away.
Exactly. If he could do this, he would have already done it. It would be super dangerous for him to just go for broke in the first round. If it doesn’t work, he’s almost guaranteed to get stopped.
Here we go..."Joshua is going to walk right through him" part II. "But you don't don't understand...Joshua wasn't really trying in there. This time, he's going to...blah, blah, blah."
