Anthony Joshua is confident he will beat Oleksandr Usyk in a trilogy fight.
The Watford powerhouse is in London on Tuesday afternoon doing his fight week media obligations ahead of his clash with Daniel Dubois, and recently took part in a fantasy boxing tournament with TNT Sports to determine ‘the best boxer’ in the world.
Joshua has been beaten by Usyk twiceGetty
The fighters in the pool were: Deontay Wilder, Canelo Alvarez, Devin Haney, Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl Lomachenko, Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue, Errol Spence, Teofimo Lopez, Tyson Fury, Ryan Garcia, Artur Beterbiev, Joshua and Dubois.
In the first round, Joshua picked himself to beat Spence while he decided Usyk would get the better of training partner and friend Lomachenko.
However, he wasn’t so kind to heavyweight rivals Fury and Dubois.
AJ had Fury getting beaten by two-weight world champion Lopez while he also sent Dubois crashing out early doors at the hands of former undisputed lightweight king Haney.
In the semis, he picked Usyk over Crawford and himself over Beterbiev to set up a trilogy clash in the final.
Joshua was beaten on points by Usyk in September 2021 and again in August 2022 but if he is given a third crack at the Ukrainian slickster then AJ backs himself to get his hand raised.
Without hesitation, AJ chose himself to win the tournament with a wide smile on his face. And he’s not alone in his assessment.
Derek Chisora recently told talkSPORT that he backs the ‘new version’ of AJ under Ben Davison to knock out Usyk.
“AJ will knock Fury out in six rounds and he will stop Usyk in round four. I’m telling you now,” Chisora told talkSPORT’s talkBOXING podcast.
“Because now he’s got the right dancing partner, his trainer.
GETTYJoshua knocked Fury and Dubois out in the first round and picked himself to win the ‘best boxer’ tournament[/caption]
“That guy hasn’t stopped watching the two tapes of him fighting Usyk.
“Because he wants that fight badly, he wants the rematch. He wants Usyk to win the fight with Fury.”
Asked if AJ will become undisputed, Chisora replied: “Yes… I think the changes he’s made are Ben Davison and the people around him now.
“They’re listening to him, they’re understanding. They’ve gelled now.
“He was not knocking out his sparring partners and now he’s knocking them out. Because of Ben Davison.”
His new trainer is equally as confident of Joshua exacting his revenge in a third fight.
Last December, Davison said: “Being selfish, I’d really like to put that Usyk fight right for him.
“I don’t know if that’s even doable. But that’s something that I would love to help him do.
“That’s something I said to him first when he came down to the gym, that I’m really confident that we’d be able to help him put that right.”
talkSPORT will bring you exclusive live commentary of the heavyweight clash at Wembley Stadium between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois on Saturday, September 21. Download the talkSPORT app here.
