ANTHONY JOSHUA will end Oleksandr Usyk’s bid to become a two-division world champion with ‘a jab’.
The Watford Warrior will defend his unified heavyweight titles against the undefeated Ukrainian on September 25 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
AJ will have significant size and reach advantages over the former undisputed cruiserweight king, who David Haye reckons won’t be able to take his fellow Olympian’s power on the chin.
The former WBA heavyweight champion told Sky Sports: “I think his style might be very effective if AJ was 6’2” and 14st.
“But AJ isn’t. AJ is 6’6” and he’s an absolute specimen, and he’s one of the best athletes ever in the heavyweight division.
“That just spells knockout defeat for Usyk.
“If Usyk was the future of the heavyweight division and he’s going to be good enough to beat AJ, he should have at least stopped Derek Chisora or won by a landslide.
“But he didn’t. He wasn’t able to keep the heavier man off him. He didn’t have the firepower.
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“I just don’t see AJ having any problems.
“I’ll tell you exactly what punch it’s going to be – a jab, right hand and then a straight jab again.
“The jab will knock out Usyk. He will knock Usyk out with a jab.”
Haye, who is stepping back into the ring himself in a moneyspinning exhibition bout with billionaire entrepreneur Joe Fournier, reckons Usyk doesn’t have the stopping power at heavyweight to trouble Joshua.
The 40-year-old added: “He just doesn’t have the firepower.
“I can’t see any version of reality that AJ loses this fight. He looks devastating, really quick, really fast.
“He makes the same type of statement as Tyson Fury made against Deontay Wilder, where he just looks devastating.
He will knock Usyk out with a jab
David Haye’s prediction for Anthony Joshua’s clash with Oleksandr Usyk
“Once he wins that, it will set up that undisputed fight, but obviously Fury has got to then get his business taken care of with Wilder.
“The winner of that, obviously there’s only one fight for them to take.”
Usyk is 2-0 since making his heavyweight debut in October 2019 and is ‘confident’ of causing a huge upset in his Tottenham tussle with AJ.
His promoter and countryman, Alexander Krassyuk, told MyBettingSites: “The rematch is something that is not obligatory in the mandatory fight.
“But we accepted the very fair conditions to agree to it.
“Oleksandr is very confident in his victory over AJ and how he will beat him.
“So, therefore, he easily agreed for the second bout because his mindset will be even more favourable after he wins the first.
“There were no other options for Oleksandr after he became the undisputed champion and defended against Tony Bellew.
“There was nothing else to prove at cruiserweight and staying there would for sure be a stagnation or even a step back.
“Now Alex has a huge motivation to get up at 5am every day and work as hard as he can for he has an objective in front of him.
“After just two bouts at heavyweight, Usyk signed the contract for a multiple belt showdown with the king of the heavyweights.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
