Eddie Hearn believes that Oleksandr Usyk ‘sounds emotional’ this week and has questioned whether the Ukrainian is in the right mental state with everything happening in his homeland. The Matchroom Boxing promoter has ‘spotted’ a sign of fragility in the stoic heavyweight champion in the form of a fluffy toy given to him by his daughter.
Although Hearn admitted he was ‘clutching at straws’ the Brit went on to compare the toy to other pivotal moments of vulnerability in the lead-up to fights such as when Canelo Alvarez had his daughter on his lap for the press conference with Dmitry Bivol.
Speaking at the open workouts ahead of this weekend’s clash between Usyk and Anthony Joshua, Hearn told Matchroom Boxing: “I feel that he’s speaking very emotionally, and you would do considering what’s happening in his country right now. I’m getting asked that question a lot. How will that affect him?
“It can affect you in two ways, it can motivate you beyond levels you’ve never been motivated before to put in a performance on a world stage for your country, or it can emotionally drain you with you being away from your family, speaking to friends that are out in battle for your country.
Usyk squares off against Joshua for a second time on August 20 at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia live on Sky Sports Box Office. In their last outing, Usyk captured the WBA (super), IBF, and WBO heavyweight titles from ‘AJ’ after a dominant points victory in London.
For this fight, the lineal heavyweight title (Ring Magazine belt) has been added to the prize pool after Tyson Fury vacated the strap following his re-retirement last week.
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