Anthony Joshua should forget about taking unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk up on his offer to give him a chance to redeem himself in a trilogy match if the two fighters win their next fights.
It’s a bad idea for Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) because the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and former two-division undisputed champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) has his number and will beat him a third time. This is the view of YouTube pod host Carl Froch, who feels that Usyk is too good for Joshua, and I agree with him.
Hearn’s Smoke and Mirrors
Usyk had Joshua a mental wreck in their second fight after schooling him for twelve rounds, leaving him in August 2022 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It took Joshua’s wheeling & dealing promoter, Eddie Hearn, two years to mentally rebuild him after that second loss to get him to where he is now, challenging IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21st at Wembley Stadium.
If Joshua wins that fight against Dubois, he should take the Tyson Fury fight if it’s available to him rather than messing with Usyk a third time because he doesn’t need that kind of trouble. Assuming Fury doesn’t get beaten a second time by Usyk in their rematch on December 21st, Joshua should take that fight with Tyson and then retire.
Fighting Usyk would be putting him back in a situation that could undo all the hard work that Hearn did matching him up against these four tomato cans:
– Franciso Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
Hearn has the boxing public completely fooled, thinking that Joshua has been rebuilt in a true sense rather than being matched against fighters that anyone in the top 20 would beat. If Joshua fights Usyk again, it will spoil Hearn’s handy work, pulling the curtain back to the fact that AJ hasn’t been rebuilt. It’s just smoke & mirrors with trickery and sly match-making.
“Joshua-Usyk? Would I want to see it again? I wouldn’t be that excited about seeing a third fight because Usyk beat him conclusively twice,” said Carl Froch on his YouTube site about his lack of interest in seeing a trilogy match between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk due to AJ having lost twice already to the Ukrainian talent.
Joshua’s fans want to see him fight Usyk because they actually think he’s better than he ever was, and they’re chomping at the bit to see him thrown back in with his two-time conqueror. Froch doesn’t. He can see what I can other intelligent boxing experts can see. Hearn has pulled the wool over the eyes of the native sheep by matching Joshua against the utter worst heavyweights he could dig up, and he’s got the flock fooled.
“If Joshua beats Dubois, who is the favorite against Dubois, I would think the smart money would be on Joshua because of experience,” said Froch. “He’s been in more world title fights, and that experience will help him massively against Dubois.”
Youth and Power Prevail
Forget about Joshua’s experience over Dubois. It’s not going to help him one bit in this fight. Youth, power, and toughness will prevail, with Dubois blasting Joshua out of his solar system with one of his power shots. This fight has nothing to do with experience. It’s more about youth, power, hunger and toughness.
Dubois has checked all the boxes in his favor. Whatever experience Joshua had, it was many years ago because he’d been fighting fodder for the last two years, and whatever knowledge he had was a distant memory.
“If Dubois goes after it and sticks it on him, he’s got a big chance. So, Usyk beats AJ in a third fight like he’s done twice. So, he’ll do him a third time. That’s nothing against AJ. Usyk is class. He’s so good in that ring. I can’t see him losing,” said Froch, speaking some real truths about him seeing Joshua going down in another crashing and burn defeat against Usyk if he dares tangle with the talent a third time.
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