Anthony Joshua will face Oleksandr Usyk tonight in a bid to exact revenge for his defeat last September.
The heavyweight mega-fight will see Joshua attempt to regain his unified heavyweight world titles from Usyk at the Jeddah Super Dome in Saudi Arabia. Joshua and Usyk haven’t fought since their meeting last September in which Joshua was comprehensively outpointed.
Now Joshua has made changes to his game including the addition of new trainer Robert Garcia in a bid to shake things up and get the all-important result. Meanwhile Usyk elected to go home and fight in Ukraine against Russian invasion, but then returned to boxing training to fight in a contracted rematch.
The winner of the fight could help bring Tyson Fury back from retirement in a potential clash for all the belts later this year.
Here is all you need to know ahead of the heavyweight dust-up tonight…
The fights will take place at the Jeddah Super Dome in Saudi Arabia on the evening of August 20.
Ring walks for the main event are set to take place at around 10:30pm UK time despite it being around 12:30am in the early hours of the Sunday morning local time. That is expected to mean a start time of 10.54pm, a familiar time for UK fight fans, even if that means the fight not finishing until close to 2am local time.
Undercard fights are expected to begin at around 6pm on the pay-per-view segment of the card, with preliminary fights including Ben Whittaker on YouTube from just after 3pm.
Quotes;
Joshua:
“It’s a ‘must-win’ fight. Preparations have been tough, but I like the pressure. Robert Garcia, Angel Fernandez, members of my previous team as well; they’ve been pushing me, challenging me, ensuring I stay focused, and positioning me to get the job done and emerge victorious come Saturday night.
“This is what competition is all about; setting goals I want to achieve and being disciplined enough to follow them through. That’s competition with myself. As you mentioned with the belts, they mean something but that’s all at the end of the target. It’s not like I’m skipping the process. I’m focused on the process.
“I’m looking forward to it. I want to compete. I’m looking forward to it. I can’t really say much else but you’ve got to have a competitive spirit. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes and I’m looking forward to competing this weekend.”
Usyk:
“We learned from each other in the first fight, but this is a continuation and the first round on Saturday will be round 13. We had enough time to study each other. We were born to compete for life, for belts, for everything.
“The one who does not compete, does not win. All our lives are competitions for something or somebody. That’s why we are competing. We’ve had enough time to study each other and this Saturday will be a great, great fight.”
