Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury remains one of the biggest fights to be made in boxing despite there being one heavyweight clearly ahead of them.
That man is Oleksandr Usyk, who became undisputed in the division by beating Joshua twice and then Fury earlier this year. ‘The Gypsy King’ has a rematch and both his and ‘AJ’s promoters will be hoping he wins so they can finally stage the all-British clash without any more losses on records.
After his first defeat to the Ukrainian, Joshua left longtime trainer Rob McCracken to team up with Robert Garcia. Upon losing the rematch he moved on to Derrick James, whom he stayed with for wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius. He would be trained by Brit Ben Davison for his next victory over Otto Wallin and confirmed that would be the partnership going forward as he moved into a Francis Ngannou fight.
In an interview with Cigar Talk, James – who remains on good terms with ‘AJ’ – was asked what he thought about his uptick in form of late.
“He’s been who he is. He is the biggest thing in boxing … I don’t think he looks better now than he looked two fights ago. I think he’s getting down, and when you’re getting it down you get more comfortable in what you’re doing, so you’re able to do better.
Competition matters. [Francis] Ngannou was very difficult because you don’t know what he’s gonna do … You gotta be able to be present enough to engage off what he does.”
After Fury struggled and scored a split decision against Ngannou, Joshua knocked the former UFC Heavyweight Champion out in two rounds. Paired with a stoppage over Wallin – who also managed to take Fury the distance – some fans and pundits have been altering their predictions for the clash.
James says Joshua absolutely has the tools to win should it happen.
“I don’t think about how Ngannou fought [each of them]. I seen Fury said styles make fights, and that’s true. But I think that [Joshua] has the ability to beat him, yeah. He has everything, the ability to beat him, yeah.”
As always with this particular match-up, there are obstacles on the path to making it happen. Joshua has the chance to become a three-time heavyweight champion against Daniel Dubois on September 21 and Fury will have his second crack at Usyk on the same day in December.
