The renowned boxing trainer and analyst, Teddy Atlas, has voiced his opinions on the Usyk-Joshua rematch next month.
On August 20 in Saudi Arabia, Anthony Joshua has a chance to become a three-time heavyweight champion. Beating Oleksandr Usyk would avenge the defeat suffered last year and see him regain possession of the WBA, IBF and WBO titles once again.
On the latest episode of his podcast ‘The Fight’, Atlas was far from complimentary about the former two-time heavyweight champ and even made a bold prediction that he would get KO’d by fellow Brit Joe Joyce if they were to meet in the ring:
“Joe Joyce could wind up fighting the winner of Usyk and Joshua.”
“I’ll tell you something I think he knocks out Joshua.”
“How does that feel for you Brits? Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
Usyk-Joshua 2 Prediction
Unsurprisingly, the American is predicting another victory for Usyk when the two collide again in Jeddah:
“I think Usyk’s gonna win [against Joshua]. I can’t go against Usyk, how can I go against the guy, he gives you no reason to.”
“He was an undefeated Cruiserweight champ and unified all the titles, the best Cruiserweight ever besides Holyfield, he’s an olympic gold medalist.”
“He doesn’t know how to lose.”
Teddy Atlas questions Joshua’s desire
The legendary ex-trainer isn’t sure the desire is still there for Joshua, questioning how much it really means to him:
“I think that Joshua is too good a loser.”
“He’s a classy guy, I’m not saying I want him to be a sore loser – that says the wrong things. I’m just saying that sometimes it looks like Joshua accepts losing a little too freely, like he did against Ruiz the first time in the Garden, almost like a guy who’s made too much money.”
“Sometimes I just feel that it’s not important enough to him anymore.”