Boxing – Oleksandr Usyk v Anthony Joshua – WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight world title – Media Event – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – August 15, 2022 Anthony Joshua poses during the media event Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
A “re-invented” Anthony Joshua said he is well aware of Oleksandr Usyk’s tricks and knows what he must do to defeat the Ukrainian when they meet in their rematch in Jeddah on August 20.
Usyk beat Joshua in front of a sell-out crowd at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September to take the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts.
The 32-year-old Briton, who now has a new trainer in American former super-featherweight world champion Robert Garcia, said he learned a lot from his first meeting with Usyk.
“I know what he’s going to do, I know what I’ve got to do,” Joshua told the BBC. “I’ve been in there before, I know his tricks. I’ve got to go change the narrative. I’m the author of my own movie.
“I took myself to the United States, worked with some new trainers. I just wanted to kind of revamp things. I’m going to be 33 in a couple of months. I want to try something new, I want to revamp myself, reinvent myself – let me bring in some new coaches.
“I’ve just got to go in there and do my job, no excuses. I’m a winner, I think I’m known as a winner. We’ve come into the game and just been winning ever since. There’s not really nothing else to know about me.”
Joshua previously lost the belts to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 before regaining them later that year.