World heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has backed Anthony Joshua to defeat Tyson Fury in their long-anticipated clash later this year and has been helping him with his gameplan.
Usyk, who holds the IBF, WBA and WBC belts, has been working with former opponent Joshua in recent months and said he has been impressed by the Briton’s development.
He added that 36-year-old Joshua deserves to beat compatriot and fellow ex-champion Fury, 37, after changing his approach.
“Fury is an unbelievable fighter, and Fury is a very dangerous guy, but I look at how Anthony works and how he has changed,” Usyk told the BBC.
“I like Fury; he is my greedy-belly best friend. He’s an amazing fighter, but I want Anthony to win — he deserves it.”
Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion, is scheduled to return to the ring against Kristian Prenga in Riyadh on July 25. The bout will be his first since a car crash last December in which two close friends were killed.
Usyk said his recent work with Joshua focused on technical and mental preparation.
“We speak about strategy, boxing skills and psychology. We speak about fights, our fights, and I say, ‘Champ, come on, don’t stop,” he said.
The Ukrainian is set to defend his world titles against Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven on May 23 in Egypt.
• Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue retained his undisputed super bantamweight world title with a unanimous decision victory over compatriot Junto Nakatani after a gripping 12-round contest in Tokyo on Saturday.
The 33-year-old, famously known as “The Monster”, extended his winning streak in world title bouts to 28 as judges scored the fight 116-112, 115-113 and 116-112 in his favour.
Both boxers entered the bout unbeaten at 32-0 in a contest which was billed as the biggest boxing match in Japanese history after Nakatani moved up a division late last year.
Inoue charged early before Nakatani appeared to close the gap in the latter half of the fight as the pace intensified, but a clash of heads late in the 10th round opened a cut above the challenger’s eye and stalled his momentum.
“Today [Saturday] I executed the plan that I’d been saying before the fight, to stay focused on winning, to make sure I was the one who came out as the winner,” Inoue said.
“As you know, Nakatani is a mentally strong boxer. The fact that he is in the [top 10] pound-for-pound rankings makes this win worthwhile.”
The win improved Inoue’s overall record to 33 victories, with 27 knockouts.
Reuters
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