Anthony Joshua was ‘tricked’ by Oleksandr Usyk as AJ’s ‘people’ sent message before fight

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Johnny Nelson believes Anthony Joshua got ‘tricked’ by Oleksandr Usyk and has been ‘too nice’ to him in the build-up to their rematch. The former cruiserweight world champion believes AJ needs to make Usyk feel uncomfortable in his presence before the fight to give him the best chance of winning on August 20.

Joshua and Usyk have had two press conferences so far as part of their world tour, the first in Saudi Arabia and the second in London, England. For the most part, these encounters have been very respectful with both men even taking a selfie together after their face-off next to the Red Sea. But Nelson has warned the Watford powerhouse that this will play against him on fight night.

When asked about his thoughts on the press conferences leading up to the fight, Nelson told iFL TV: “I was surprised AJ let Usyk feel comfortable in his presence. If I was his people I’d say ‘yo, don’t do that, don’t play that s***, stop that. This guy [Usyk] you want him feeling uncomfortable around you and even when the cameras aren’t there and you’re sat in the green room waiting to go out there, don’t be being his mate, don’t be having little selfies with him, don’t be making this guy feel comfortable’ because in doing that, when you’re comfortable you produce cameos of brilliance.

“Fighting is mental warfare, fights are won a long, long time before you’ve got in the ring, and I’ve mentioned it before. Look at Roberto Duran vs Sugar Ray Leonard, the first fight. He [Duran] enraged him, he got under his skin, he got him to box in a way that he didn’t want to box. He made Sugar Ray sleep, dream, eat him in regard to when he got in the ring his brain had gone.

“Sugar Ray learnt the lesson, six months later come back and outboxed him. Now AJ’s got to learn from this and think ‘I don’t want you to feel comfortable in my presence, I don’t want you to feel familiar around me, I want you to think s*** what’s going on here, I want to be your every thought, I want you to think, what am I going to bring different? But when I make you feel comfortable like we’re call we’re friends, and stuff like that, what’s on your mind?’”

In their first contest back in September, Joshua was outpointed by Usyk as he dropped his WBA ‘super’, IBF, and WBO world heavyweight world titles to the Ukrainian. A lot of the criticism against Joshua on that night regarded his lack of aggression – and Nelson has warned AJ that the change in mentality must start outside of the ring after claiming Usyk lured him a false sense of security. 

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He continued: “That’s what Usyk wanted, Usyk wanted to pretend ‘we’re friends we’re all that, we’re all cool, this is business then I’m going to kick the s*** out of you when we start fighting’, so Usyk has got what he wanted. AJ’s a gentleman, he’s polite, he’s respectful and I get that but in this fight he needs some cruel ass roughness going on.

“It doesn’t just start in my style of fight, it starts with my mentality, how I approach you, how you are around me. Me staring you out a stand-off don’t mean jack diddly if we are gonna take selfies next to each other backstage. He’s got to really get at him, he’s got to make him feel uncomfortable, he’s got to cut that s*** out.”

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