AJ: I thought I was winning the first fight and I deliberately let Usyk beat me up in the last round

If someone's never boxed before than maybe it's hard to understand its not always easy to tell you're losing during the fight. Many fighters have to rewatch a fight in order to gain proper perspective on the fight and their performance.

That being said... I still don't buy this from AJ.

 

It's not delusion

He's lying through his teeth

Less than two days before the fight

''I know what I’m doing. I know exactly what I’m doing. I know what I’m gonna do. I know...Knockout, Kronk style. When I watch things, I like Emanuel Stewart’s mindset. Obviously you’ve got to do your As and Bs and Cs but is you follow them they’ll lead to you to KO — and that’s what we’re here to do, put on a spectacular show, people want to see knockouts and that’s what we’ve got to deliver for the fans.”

He was clearly befuddled by Usyk's constant movement, speed and feints from the outset and was having enough trouble trying to pin him down and catch him with arm punches

Like the analogy he used himself the other day - fighting Usyk is like trying to swat a fly

And Joshua has admitted he cannot enter the rematch using an overly-aggressive approach otherwise he will come unstuck for a second time. “We might have to box, that’s what he (Garcia) said,"

“It depends what Usyk brings as well. “It’s like trying to swat a fly. You know, because I’m the bigger man, I’m gonna’ go in there and just swat this fly and it is going to die.

"But you know how difficult it is to swat a fly because it moves around a lot and how energy-draining that is. I can’t just now come in and start boxing like Mike Tyson - it’s just not me - I have got to be the best me.''

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He also lied about never going into the ring with a game plan before which is quite clearly patently absurd and easily disprovable

But he says the game plan against Usyk was to box

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That ''huh'' reaction was obviously because he thought he might get another gift from the judges in his home country again not because he thought he'd done enough

Does this sound like a game plan?

Granted, obviously anyone above dog intelligence wouldn't need to read these quotes to know AJ is talking complete bollocks

'Anthony Joshua’s longtime trainer Rob McCracken says the plan is for AJ to box Andy Ruiz Jr. on December 7th, and not put himself in harm’s way like he did in their previous fight in June. McCracken doesn’t want to give away the whole game plan, but he makes it clear that the focus is to box Ruiz, and not let him get close to get close to land his combinations.

“I want to box Ruiz, and that’s what he’s going to do,” said McCracken. “You’ve seen heavyweight champions lose their titles, and have a rematch with the person they’ve lost to. He’s not going to go skulk away, and take another year or 18 months to. He doesn’t want to do that. he wants to beat Ruiz, and try and get his titles back. He doesn’t want to fight lower level opponents. That’s the reality of it. He’s a smart guy, and he knows what he’s doing, and in my opinion, if he gets it right, and he carries out the tactics, he can get his titles back.''


'Anthony Joshua’s trainer Rob McCracken has openly discussed aspects of their game plan for Saturday’s rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr.

When asked whether it matters if AJ emerges victorious via points or stoppage, McCracken told Sky: “I don’t care, I don’t care if he wins on points or–

“I just really don’t care. I think he’s gotta stick to the tactics, I think he’s gotta use his advantages and get the win.''

“He got the win using his tactics smartly against [Joseph] Parker. I think he’s gotta do something not the same but similar, little differences.

“But certainly he’s just gotta stick to the tactics and not worry too much about the crowd and the excitement of the rounds.

“Just get out there, get behind your jab, start boxing and get the win. Use your height and reach, use your advantages.

“I don’t take a lot of notice of it, but the people that work in the camp…listen, it was a hard night,” said McCracken. “We’ve seen great fighters lose and get KO’d. They’ve come back, and won in the rematch, and got the tactics right. If Anthony can employ the tactics he needs to do, he can win the rematch,

''It’s a fight. It’s reactive fighting. A boxing match, professional is like a fight. You know how a fight breaks out on the street. Anything can happen. It’s the one that is in control that wins. Joshua has got to be in control. That’s what he’s got to do, and that’s going to be part of the game plan. I’m not going to go into the technical side of it, but certainly he’s got to be in control and win one round at a time. He’s got to carry out the plan that he’s training for, and he’s agreed to as well,” said McCracken.''

So he's thrown McCraken under the bus twice now. McCracken is now known as a trainer whose fighters spend an entire camp training without a game plan and who won't inform his fighters when they're losing a fight


Pretty sure his current co-head trainer Angel Fernandez was in his corner for the first fight giving him instructions too

So he dumped McCracken but kept the guy who was in his corner who kept silent about the fact they were losing the fight?

 

Howard Foster had AJ up 77-75 after eight rounds, giving five rounds to AJ and three rounds to Uysk

AJ has just signed a huge new deal with DAZN

An AJ vs Fury match up will be the biggest fight of all time according to E-Hearn and he's probably right

I'm sure there's no incentive to rob Usyk so that can happen though

How's about if they have a rematch?

Or a trilogy?

Not a peep about Usyk getting a rematch if he were to lose though

Forget about that

He has to get past AJ twice, take part in two semi-finals, to book his place in the final even though he won the first one wide in the away corner where everything was heavily stacked against him and sans any controversy, other than one of judge's cards that is and one of the other's was still too close

AJ only has to beat Usyk once to book his place though even though Usyk fought him in his backyard for the first one on hostile territory where everything was heavily stacked against him in front of 65,000 or so rabid AJ fans

And AJ clearly lost to Savon in the Olympics and most had him losing the final to Cammarelle too