This Saturday night, the unified heavyweight champion of the world, Anthony Joshua, takes on his mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in a mouth-watering match-up, live on Sky Sports Box Office.

Anthony Joshua currently holds 3 out of 4 of the major world title belts in the heavyweight division

The Brit will be defending his WBA, WBO and IBF world titles against his Ukrainian opponent, who comes into the fight unbeaten in 18 bouts. This will only be Usyk’s third fight up at heavyweight since his move up from cruiserweight in 2019.

Oleksandr Usyk is a relatively unknown quantity to boxing casuals, primarily being down to the fact that he fought at cruiserweight, a weight class that has never had any real limelight shone on it and has always been in the shadows of the sport’s ‘glamour division’.

The Ukrainian southpaw holds an extensive amateur record, winning both gold at the world championships and gold at the 2012 London Olympics. In the paid ranks, he is the former undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world, meaning that he won all of the four major belts: WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF. In doing so, he became only the sport’s fifth undisputed champion. This alone shows that he will be no pushover for the defending champion.

Usyk is coming off a unanimous decision win against Joshua’s fellow countryman, Dereck Chisora in October of 2020. Meanwhile, Joshua is coming in off a dominant knockout win against Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev back in December of 2020.

A win on Saturday for ‘AJ’ would set up an extraordinary fight against fellow Brit and current WBC world champion, Tyson Fury. A fight that every boxing fan wants and a fight that would be for ‘all of the marbles’.

Can the slick Ukrainian southpaw cause an upset win against ‘AJ’, much like Andy Ruiz Jr did back on that famous night in New York, halting an all-British undisputed match-up or will the Brit put on a statement as he looks to set up a long-awaited fight with ‘the Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury?

Author: Patrick Leonard

Anthony Joshua V Oleksandr Usyk Preview