Oleksandr Usyk says Anthony Joshua made a huge mistake by leaning back, which IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois took advantage of in his fifth round knockout victory in London.
Unified champion Usyk explains that Joshua (28-4, 23 KOs) should have stood with his head up and not leaned back, which Dubois repeatedly took advantage of to drop him four times in their main event at Wembley Stadium fall.
Usyk beat a better version of Joshua in their two fights, and he didn’t lean back like he did against Dubois. It is unclear if Joshua watched films of other fighters and tried to pattern his style after theirs.
AJ talked about studying the late heavyweight champion Sonny Liston’s fights. That guy didn’t lean back during his fights though. Liston was a slugger who would come after his opponents. He would have been better off if Joshua had emulated Liston’s old fighting style.
“I’m not shocked because it’s boxing. Daniel Dubois today was better,” said Oleksandr Usyk Boxing King Mediain response to Anthony Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois. “When you step back (leaning back) like that, it’s dangerous,” Usyk said of how Joshua got hurt by leaning back against Dubois. “When I beat Joshua a second time, I don’t know what’s next.”
Dubois came forward the entire fight, throwing hard jabs and looking to tag Joshua with right hands. In the first round, Dubois connected with a right hand, catching Joshua and dropping him to the canvas. Joshua never seemed to recover from that blow.
“I thought I saw a man with the face of AJ, but it was completely different inside,” promoter Alex Krassyuk said. “He didn’t look like we expected him to look. Did you see his right hand? It was all the way up his chest. So, his chin was up. It was like a fairy tale for any boxer, not just Dubois.”
Joshua studied someone and picked up the bad habits we saw tonight against Dubois. He is constantly trying to adapt his fighting style rather than being happy with the style that has carried him this far in his career.
A better style for Joshua would have been to use the Wladimir Klitschko approach he used to beat Andy Ruiz Jr. defeating them in their December 2019 rematch. It might have worked against Dubois if he came in lighter and was ready to move for 12 rounds. Joshua was too heavy for him to use the Klitschko style.
