Oleksandr Usyk’s assistant coach Sergey Lapin believes that Anthony Joshua has made a mistake by pursuing a rematch against the Ukrainian.
Usyk beat Joshua comfortably, back in September 2021. He immediately exercised his option to enforce a rematch, and appears to be making changes to his training setup ahead of the second fight, which is due to come in May or June.
That could yet be complicated by Usyk’s presence in Ukraine where men of fighting age are not permitted to leave the country at present.
Nonetheless, Lapin does not think that Joshua has enough time to overhaul his approach before he faces Usyk again.
“Usyk is now looking forward to the fight with Joshua because it's the next step towards his goal and dream of winning all the titles in the glamour division,” he said to MyBettingSites.
“In the near future, the promoters will decide on the venue of the boxing match, most likely it will be in London, and Alexander will consolidate his standing in the heavyweight division when he achieves a second victory over AJ.”
The assistant coach thinks that a better option for Joshua would have been to take step-aside money to facilitate an undisputed clash with Tyson Fury and Usyk.
“Compensation for Joshua to step aside would have been a better option for Joshua as he would have had more time to correct his mistakes and prepare for the fight,” he explained.
“Joshua is a strong guy, he has been boxing for a long time, he has fought some serious opponents, but as far as the rematch goes, Joshua will not learn anything new in four months, no matter how many new coaches there are in his camp.
“I think Joshua will change his fighting strategy towards a more aggressive style, but will he be able to maintain this pace, will his conditioning be enough for this? We will only be able to see in the ring.
"That's the essence of boxing, not only big muscles and size playing a role here, it's very important how your boxing IQ works and how quickly you make decisions. Usyk will be preparing for the same Joshua, taking into account the mistakes of the previous fight.”