Oleksandr Usyk has mentioned he was ‘perhaps 30 seconds or a minute’ from pulling down Anthony Joshua within the pair’s first struggle.
Usyk beat Joshua through unanimous determination in London final September, touchdown a flurry of punches with the Briton backed up towards the ropes simply earlier than the ultimate bell sounded.
Ahead of the pair’s rematch in Saudi Arabia on 20 August, Usyk was requested how shut he believes he was to ending Joshua throughout that late onslaught.
“Perhaps if there were another 30 seconds or another minute in the 12th round, Anthony would have been knocked down,” the unbeaten Ukrainian instructed Parimatch.
“But I don’t think about it anymore, because it’s just guessing. It happened as it happened. I boxed 12 rounds and I won.”
Usyk, 35, took the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles from Joshua, 32, within the pair’s first conflict.
Joshua will look to regain the belts when he takes on Usyk once more this month.
“He is a strong guy and a strong boxer, and he cannot be written off in any way,” Usyk mentioned of Joshua. “In the rematch, he will be different. He will prepare differently. I will do that, too.”
Joshua’s defeat by Usyk was the second of the Briton’s skilled profession, along with his first having come towards Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Ruiz Jr beat Joshua through TKO at Madison Square Garden in New York City in June of that 12 months. “AJ” then outpointed the Mexican-American in December 2019 to regain the heavyweight titles that he misplaced within the pair’s first bout – the identical belts he later dropped to Usyk.
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk