ANTHONY JOSHUA has ramped up his preparations to face Oleksandr Usyk by sparring southpaw Wadi Camacho.
The unified heavyweight king has had to drastically switch up training camp after his fight with Tyson Fury fell to pieces.
AJ has now turned his attention to WBO mandatory challenger Usyk by recruiting lefty sparring partners.
One of those is cruiserweight Camacho, 35, who shared recent pictures with Joshua online.
The former Commonwealth champion has not fought since September 2019, when he was beaten by Deion Jumah.
Camacho’s southpaw style was enlisted following the news Fury, 32, would be fighting Wilder, 35, next, not Joshua, 31.
The Gypsy King and AJ were closing in on a deal for an undisputed title decider on August 14 in Saudi Arabia.
But at the final hurdle, Wilder’s right to a trilogy bout with Fury was awarded after a lengthy arbitration.
The Brit drew with his heavyweight rival in 2018 but won the rematch two years later, which included a contracted third bout.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Fury’s side argued the stipulation expired as they instead entered talks with Joshua.
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But Wilder’s legal case later went his way and with no plans to take a step aside fee, all of a sudden AJ was left out in the cold.
The WBO, who had initially given Joshua clearance to proceed with his unification, then ordered him to face Usyk, 34.
Promoter Eddie Hearn told DAZN: “Subject to a few details from the WBO like the purse bid, that is the first fight.
“It looks like the end of August. Since the [Kubrat] Pulev fight, AJ’s whole life has been about the Fury fight.
“His training, his sparring, everything has been geared to that. So now we have to reset, he’s fighting Usyk, a southpaw.
“He had no problem fighting Usyk so he said if you feel like the deal is right, let’s proceed.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
