ANTHONY JOSHUA has been told he can OUTBOX Oleksandr Usyk in their heavyweight rematch.
Joshua was beaten by Usyk last September but faces the Ukrainian pound-for-pound star again on August 20 in Saudi Arabia.
AJ was questioned for trying to outfox the famously slick southpaw, 35, instead of looking for the knockout.
But Dave Coldwell, the mastermind behind Tony Bellew’s fight with Usyk in 2018, claimed there are chinks in the champion’s armour.
And he warned Joshua, 32, that coming out aggressive is actually playing into Usyk’s hands.
Coldwell told talkSPORT: “Normally, with a lot of fighters, there’s always something.
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“But when you look at Usyk you don’t see any weaknesses, which makes you focus on every minor detail. I spent hours and hours watching him.
“The majority of his career, everyone’s come at him – that’s what he’s used to; he’s comfortable with that and that’s what his style’s built for.
“If Bellew went at him we’d walk into traps.
“It’s different to AJ, because he’s got the height, the reach, the physicality; the one-punch danger.
“I came across the Michael Hunter fight. It was the first [Usyk] fight I thought, ‘He can be outboxed’, because the first few rounds Hunter was in a negative style that gave him a lot of difficulty.
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“It can’t just be negative, because mentally Usyk will tire you out, so you’ve still got to put a thumbprint on him as well.
“So, I almost wanted to mirror what Usyk does to his opponents.
“Bellew’s very, very disciplined, so I knew he was capable, and I also wanted him to land body shots, because I came across something in the amateurs, which nobody talks about – Usyk went down with a body shot.
“When I saw that I thought, ‘There’s the chink’. But he’s very good with his defence, so if you just try and bludgeon him he knows how to cover.”
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Coldwell continued: “Marco Huck; Mairis Briedis; these good fighters couldn’t get to grips with him. Bellew’s smart, and hits hard enough to drain you at the same time.
“The game plan was to set traps for Usyk, because he’s more comfortable going backwards. With AJ it’s different, because of his physical attributes.
“If he catches you he’s going to at least knock you off-balance and wear you down – if he uses those physical attributes, which he didn’t really do in that first fight.
“[But] it’s [also] the effort, and the concentration it takes in those first six rounds to stay with him.
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“You’re working so hard to stay with him you’re f*****, and then mistakes creep in because you’re fatiguing.
“It’s not that he’s going up in gears. It’s that that’s his game – to outlast you, mentally.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
