Former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has backed British fighter Anthony Joshua to turn his career around after losing to Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday night.
Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) will get a chance to avenge his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) when the two fighters come face-to-face in a re-match in February next year.
Already, many boxing fans are saying that Joshua is over-the-hill, and he should pack it in after his loss to the former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk.
Joshua isn’t listening to the fans, and he’s already activated his rematch clause to fight Usyk again.
But speaking to the trending issue, Wladimir points out that he lost two back in 2003 & 2004 to Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, and he came back to recapture a world title in 2006 and go on a nine-year run as champion before losing his titles to Tyson Fury in 2015 at the age of 39.
What was different about Wladimir coming back was that he didn’t fight anyone particularly dangerous to become a champion again.
Instead of Wladimir fighting Corrie Sanders in a rematch to avenge his second round knockout, his brother Vitali Klitschko fought the South African and defeated him.
Had Wladimir fought the hard-hitting southpaw Sanders ago, it’s unknown what would have happened.
It’s questionable however, whether Joshua can beat Usyk in the rematch because he looked totally over-matched against the Ukrainian talent.
The technical ability that Usyk showed in that fight was slight years ahead of Joshua, and that’s not going to change in the next five or six months before the two met in a rematch.
Joshua seems timid now after his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019, and he can fight like that against Usyk and expect to beat him.
It’s understandable why Joshua is cautious about fighting aggressively against Usyk because he was getting nailed when he would throw shots.