Two prominent heavyweight boxers, Andy Ruiz Jr and Deontay Wilder, have both tipped Oleksandr Usyk to defeat Anthony Joshua in their world title rematch tomorrow night in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ukrainian Usyk secured a comfortable unanimous points victory over the Nigerian-Briton last September, snatching the World Boxing Organisation, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation heavyweight belts from Joshua.
Ruiz inflicted Joshua’s first career defeat in New York in June 2019, but then lost the rematch in December of that year in Saudi Arabia.
Now Ruiz expects Usyk to beat Joshua for a second time.
“If Usyk doesn’t do the same thing that I did, then he’s going to win the fight,” Ruiz told BoxingScene.com.
“I had all of the tools to beat Anthony Joshua, but things happened so fast. I was here, I was over there, and I didn’t focus on what I was supposed to do.
“But Usyk is different. He’s ready. He’s more disciplined. He’s already been a world champion before. He’s been super famous. It’s going to be a tough fight for both of them.”
Ruiz however believes a change of coaches from Rob McCracken to Robert Garcia will benefit Joshua’s performance.
“I think that was a good move as well. Sometimes we have to learn from different trainers. Every trainer that we have, we learn new things and it becomes muscle memory,” Ruiz said.
“I think he needed a Mexican trainer to make him aggressive. I think he needed that aggressiveness against Usyk. He’s the bigger guy. He’s the stronger guy.”
American Wilder, who claims he also has Nigerian ancestry, predicted that Usyk will ‘easily’ beat Joshua.
Speaking on the PBC podcast, Wilder said: “My totally honest opinion is that it’s going to depend on the fighters.
“A lot of time has passed and there’s been a lot of time given to strategise for the second time around.
“They say when you fight a person you know him a little bit better the second time, even a little bit more the third.
“It’s all going to be up to those guys. My heart says Usyk easily, he’s got the momentum now and how he was able to do it the last time around.
“But this is boxing at the end of the day and you just never know how it’s going to to end up panned out until the end of it.
“I wish them all the best of luck and I hope they get out of the ring just like they came in; safe and sound.”
Wilder, who has lost twice in three bouts against Tyson Fury, expects Usyk’s confidence to give the Ukrainian the edge.
“Usyk just looks more confident than ever now and when you look at Joshua he just looks like a different man,” he explained.
“He (Joshua) looks more broken or something, maybe it’s him getting used to not having the titles and now the tables have turned.
“Because sometimes you have something for so long and the tables turn you’ve got a chance to get used to that when you were used to something else.”
