JOSHUA VS USYK 2: THE RETURN OF SEEK-AND-DESTROY OR MORE SIMFEROPOLITAN RAZZLE-DAZZLE?

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The fight of the year is nearly upon us. Fight of the year… on mediatism and money-drawing (within realm of possibility..), if nothing else. After all, to the casual fan out there, Boxing is the heavyweight division and little else beyond/beneath that.
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Right off the bat (if you’ll pardon the idiom) I should say that I’m picking Usyk to win this fight, and to do so by KO. When the first fight between them came about almost one year ago, I did pick Joshua to win, and did so in light of the facts available up until then, but since then, new facts have come to light, the most self-evident of them being Usyk’s win and performance in the inaugural fight of this duology(so far).
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When Usyk came up from Cruiserweight to Heavyweight, he had 2 fights before he was lined up to face Joshua. He battled Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora, two fairly modest talents, although the latter of the two with some name recognition. And truth be told, Usyk failed to set the world alight in both fights.
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I would say that the general consensus in the Fall of 2020, was that Oleksandr Usyk was a fairly small heavyweight whose boxing skills remained intact above 200 pounds. His footwork, ring generalship and velvety southpaw dexterity were still there to be marvelled at. But after two ho-hum decisions wins against a pair of more or less unassuming adversaries, none of us believed that the former unified Cruiserweight Champion had the physical wherewithal to dethrone Anthony Joshua from his lofty perch.
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And I wager that Joshua’s handlers felt the same way. They likely looked at Usyk as an innocuous challenge against a celebrated former Champion, a good “scalp” or feather for Joshua to collect with “littler” risk than bearing down the gauntlet of a Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder. But there is a reason why fights are not fought on paper.
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In the lead up to the fight, there were some rumblings that Uysk was the superior stylist, and therefore, Joshua would necessarily have to face him in his usual seek-and-destroy mode. And perhaps that got into Joshua’s mind, because when the bell rang, the (much)larger man instead of imposing his power and strength on the “lesser-fleshed” Usyk, he chose to Box scientifically with him.
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In the past, Joshua for the most part was a seeker and a destroyer, at 6.6 and 250 pounds, it was a sound method. Right up until he fought the rather hefty Andy Ruiz. And in said bout, Joshua per usual attempted to lay down his muscle and “athletic endowment” on the much smaller(in height…) Ruiz.
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But stupefaction and bewilderment came to happen, and after Ruiz tasted Joshua’s power (and the canvas) in the initial rounds, he was thoroughly acclimated to the incoming, and then, the Chicano got back up and let Joshua taste his concussiveness as well. And while both had power, it seemed that Ruiz could take it as well as dish it out, while the adonis-like Joshua seemed more suited at emitting and receiving and within a few stanzas, it became a one-way “conversation”, with Joshua showing himself to be a good “listener”.
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And as as a result, the unheralded Ruiz shocked the world as he KOed Joshua inside of 7 rounds after knocking him down 4 times, a 25 to 1 underdog had been found, the biggest upset since James “Buster” Douglas had clashed with “Ser” Tyson in one legendary night in February of 1990 at the Tokyo Egg Dome, a night forever engraved in Boxing lore.
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In the rematch, Joshua reinvented himself by switching from an Halgeresque “Destruct and Destroy” into a scientific Boxer of Klitschkian (of the Wladimir variety) precision. Basically he converted into a stick-and-move strategy, and making good use of the capacious ring and his considerable reach, Joshua safaely outboxed Ruiz from the outside in a pretty dull outing unlikely to be “sculpted” into Canastota‘s halls.,
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The oldest anxiom in Boxing is that “Styles make fights“. And now, the prevailing school of thought is that Joshua must undertake the inverse of his metamorphosis of late 2019 . Or in other words, instead of going in there feigning to be a master boxer, it is necessary for him to make full use of his athletic superiority.
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But people are forgetting one thing. In the first fight although Joshua was boxing and not so much power-punching, the fact remains he did land on Usyk’s jaw on bounteous occasions. And that all-powerful faculty that had desolated 22 of 24 opponents by KO, seemed to have no effect on the Ukrainian.
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Furthermore, notwithstanding the fact that Usyk was all things considered mostly Boxing and not going for the jugular, Usyk still had Joshua on the precipice of a KO loss in the closing rounds of the fight. This might have been due to Joshua’s less-than-granitelike chin as much as a result of Usyk having a natural and superior conditioning.
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Yes, Joshua does look like a bodybuilder while Usyk looks slightly “fleshy” but that does not always tells us what sort of “engine” they have under the “hood“, and in my reckoning, not only is Usyk a better boxer but he also has the stouter chin and more opulent stamina.
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On top of (all of)this, Usyk is a reasonably “strange fellow“. An eccentric, amusing(an acquired taste) and idiosyncratic fighter. As I size them up mentally before this fight, I feel that for all sorts of reasons, Usyk seems to have the psychological ascendant. Joshua has been talking aplenty but without reserve I must say that I do not see him as a confident man and he might very well just be going through the (financially rewarding)motions.
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It is entirely possible that Joshua in his heart of hearts does not conceive that he can improvise, adapt, overcome and triumph in this particular “joust”, and hence, has accepted this mighty “rept” simply because it was the biggest money fight available to him and his promoter, the ever-garrulous(and filled with Vernian “fancifulness”) Mr Edward Hearn.
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Anything can happen in Boxing. From the looks of it, Usyk looks appreciably heavier, and there are “beauty-parlor chitchats” that he’s been swimming up to 4 hours a day in order to bulk up. Forthrightly I must confess, that all that natatory activity seems like an easy way to injure one’s shoulders. Maybe Usyk is switching it up without necessity.
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Maybe he is overconfident. Maybe the raging war in his homeland is weighing heavy on his mind. Having considered all of that. I still pick him to beat Joshua, and to do so by knockout. He’s tasted Joshua’s power before and he might be more willing than before to go for broke and get him out of there in short(er) fashion. At 35 Usyk cannot afford to take any fight lightly, any imprudence or slip-up could be costly to his career and his (historical)standing within the game.
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Should Joshua lose, what then? Anthony is/will still one of the 2 biggest boxing attractions out there, his clean-cut personality and adequately eloquent and charming manner have long endeared him to his countrymen and sponsors. Much like Ray Leonard in the 80s and De La Hoya in the 90s, Joshua is an advertising executive’s dream to promote Rolexes, perfumes, golfing bags, sports cars and other luxury brands.
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Should Usyk win, there will naturally be clamors for him to face the recently (and recurringly)retired Tyson Fury. But should the Wythenshavian prove to be unavailable or uninterested, surely further obstacles will present themselves, be they fights with Deontay Wilder, Joe Joyce or whoever.
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A lot has been made of Joshua changing trainers from Robert McCracken to the venerable, earthy(and ever-likeable) Roberto Garcia. Garcia is a top trainer to be sure, but in my experience, no matter how lauded a coach might be, he cannot operate miracles, less likely so on fighters who are already (by and large) veterans.
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Plus, there is a little effect a coach can have after only one training camp on a fighter already set in his ways. I believe that once Joshua tastes Usyk’s fists he’ll just guilelessly revert to what comes naturally, which more than likely will be to slug it out.
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As the poet Joseph Addison once wrote, “Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.”
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Parque das Nações,
Wednesday, August 10th, 2022,
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Text: Ronald William Miller.
Image: All rights reserved.
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