Former Super Middleweight champion, Carl Froch, has been voicing his opinions about the upcoming rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua next month.
‘The Cobra’ knows a thing or two about highly anticipated rematches, he famously defeated George Groves for a second time in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium after their first encounter had ended in a controversial stoppage.
In Saudi Arabia on August 20, ‘AJ’ has the chance to become a three-time heavyweight champ. He goes into the matchup looking to avenge his defeat to Usyk last year, and in doing so, regain possession of the WBA, IBF and WBO titles.
Boxing Social’s Ayman Khan caught up with Carl Froch about the upcoming fight in Jeddah and the fellow Brit thinks big changes are needed for Joshua.
When asked if he took anything from the recent press conferences, Froch replied:
“Not really, it’s hard to take anything this early in the fight, they’re not fighting for a while.”
“I just think Usyk’s extremely confident and he has every right to be because he’s extremely talented.”
“AJ looks a little bit worried and he should be because he’s in against a fantastic talent.”
The now TV analyst went on to detail what ‘AJ’ needs to do to get revenge over Usyk:
“Everyone’s already said it, but he’s the bigger stronger man so if he can he can use those attributes he can get the win.”
“The first thing he needs to do before he gets in that ring is get his head sorted out.”
“I’ve said he needs a brain transplant before and people were like ‘What’s he talking about?’ What I mean by that is he needs a totally different mindset and maybe a change in trainer [will do that].”
“I don’t think he should have left Rob McCracken but this change might do him good because it might just reignite something and get him thinking differently – get him a little bit more aggressive.”
“He needs to get his head right and start to believe in himself, otherwise it’s going to go wrong for him.”
‘The Cobra’ isn’t alone in his view that Joshua needs a change in mentality. Another former British world title holder, Johnny Nelson, has also questioned AJ’s attitude at the press conferences, saying the former Heavyweight champ “needs to cut that s**t out!”