Oleksandr Usyk ’15 kilos heavier’ for Anthony Joshua rematch as Amir Khan fears for Brit

Amir Khan has revealed that Oleksandr Usyk has gained 15kg since his last fight with Anthony Joshua, putting the former undisputed cruiserweight champion at a colossal 250lb. Recent videos emerging online showed a considerably larger Usyk and now the extent of the weight gain has been disclosed.

Khan recently joined Usyk in camp to watch his training and revealed that ‘The Cat’ is looking like a natural heavyweight. “He looks a lot bigger, I mean he was telling me that he’s put on an extra 15 kilos since he last fought AJ,” Khan told Seconds Out. “So, we’re going to see how much strength he’s going to be having. He looks like a full-on natural heavyweight. He is big and looks very strong.”

He continued: “He nowhere near looked like a cruiserweight he looked like a nice full blown-up heavyweight, he was strong at the weight, when he was hitting the pads and stuff and you can see the definition on his body. He’s very thick and you can see it’s solid muscle that he’s got.”

Usyk’s increase in weight has added yet another dimension to the Saudi showdown. In their first fight back in September of last year, it was Usyk’s speed and manoeuvrability that won him the day but now with him appearing to be much heavier concerns have been raised about how this will affect him in the rematch.

“I think every fight he’s ever had I think he’s kind of got through it quite easily really, we’ve never seen him dig deep and fight, dig deep in the trenches and start fighting. I think we’ll see a different Usyk if someone puts that pressure on him.”

Usyk and Joshua square off again on August 20 at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia live on Sky Sports PPV. In the co-feature, Filip Hrgovic faces Zhang Zhilei in an IBF final eliminator bout to determine the next challenger to the winner of the main event. Elsewhere on the undercard, Callum Smith, Ramla Ali and Badou Jack all feature.