⚡Your Best Game Plan For USyK⚡

Not true. In the UK people bought tickets because they knew how good Usyk is. Obviously Chisora/Bellew were more well known, but MR did a great job at promoting Usyk to that audience.

 

He's a lefty.

(1043) Oleksandr Usyk signs the autograph into the passport of his fan - YouTube

 

I highly doubt that anyone might sell out arena in any Baltic country with fights like Usyk vs A.J etc alike stuff.
Pro boxing is very small niche even if we are talking about sport fans. Majority of sport fans in Baltic countries does not have interest about pro boxing at all.
Yeah, this is true that they were able to sell all arena even with fights like Briedis vs Durodola etc and fighters like Bolotņiks ( never boring to watch ) does warrant good increase for sales.

In general no, pro boxing is not even in top 10 sports ppl follow in these countries.
& after covid et$ I think might be easier to sell them ppvs in these Baltic countries rather than tickets.

Usyk ofc might warrant good ppvs sales and tickets sales, if vs Bellew looks that they had >800k ppvs then ofc he is popular.

 

Fight his own fight up to a point...

The additional bulk (combined with ageing) may well have hurt his own gas tank somewhat - if he was going for points he'd already be needing more gas than usual because he'd need to come out quicker to stand any chance of taking early rounds...

The conflict there suggests he's looking at trying to get a KO, which is brave - he's never been a massive puncher even at CW when opponents weren't a fair bit heavier than him, so to suddenly be backing himself to get that KO suggests he's either banking on a huge power increase or he thinks he's seen something in AJ's chin that he fancies his chances with, despite not having been able to knock out Chisora who has multiple KO losses on his record when he fought him, maybe he's been reading these boards.

The alternative is that he feels like he needs a few more lbs to be able to chip away at AJ with more powerful body punches and wear him down.

I'm not entirely convinced either of these are necessarily the case though...
Usyk's a wily character and knows his game very well at this point, he's not going to be naive enough to think he can reinvent himself completely for this fight despite physical disadvantages and despite being up against the most proven fighter in the division.
I think he knows that his best chance, despite the cynicism, is to use his intelligence and his agility to make AJ look so silly that they won't be able to rob him without it being incredibly obvious, especially if he can avoid getting knocked down himself - on a technical level he's capable of this, but whether he can manage to avoid getting tagged with something big when he couldn't do so against a slower fighter in Chisora, especially when Usyk had a clear reach advantage in that fight and AJ will have a clear one in this fight.

I don't think he'll manage it either way, as much as I'd like to see AJ humiliated or knocked out, I just don't think Usyk stands much chance of being the man to administer it.

 

For me Usyk's gameplan should be based on the following:-

1) Take Joshua deep mentally - keep him guessing, doubt himself, project that confidence and slightly maniacal grin at all times
2) Fight his own fight as much as possible, but target Joshua's weakness whilst accentuating his own strengths; angles, feints, volume and superior judging of distance*
3) Careful and strategic use of bodyshots wherever possible to empty that suspect gas tank; being wary of being open to that uppercut
4) Ensure the rythym established is his - meaning disrupting Joshua's as much as possible, especially in the early rounds where Usyk tends to start slow
5) Don't start too slow and give away rounds and give Joshua too much confidence, AJ does NOT like getting tagged, regardless of how much of a puncher the person is - whether that is post-Ruiz or just innate, it was very clear against Pulev. Usyk has to connect early and often to get point 1 going.
6) On the defensive side, frustrate AJ as much as possible by making him miss, parrying or good footwork. Make AJ have to be disciplined, which gets back to point 1

All of this for me comes down to more or less one thing, as I noted with the *, it's whether Usyk can overcome AJ's fairly signifcant reach advnatage and get that distance judged perfectly; if he can than I think he has a great chance. If he can't overcome that jab / reach (think Parker) then it will be a real struggle - however as an elite, I think Usyk will find some wayto get into the fight even if he has to adapt A,B,C - the issue there is whether he manages to adapt quick enough to effect the final outcome.