Former Heavyweight champion, Evander Holyfield has taken a deep dive into the causes of Anthony Joshua’s failure to beat Oleksandr Usyk.
The Nigerian-British born boxer endured a horrible defeat in the hands of Usyk- losing to the Ukrainian on two occasions in 2021 and 2022.
Joshua was beaten by Usyk on a split decision verdict back in August of 2022 in the second installment of their rivalry at the top of the heavyweight division.
He had lost the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles in 2021 after a unanimous-decision defeat against the Ukrainian before suffering another loss to Usyk in August 2022.
The 33-year-old has now not won a fight for two years, with his last victory coming against Kubrat Pulev in December 2020.
Reacting to Joshua’s run of defeats to Usyk, Evander said the British boxer has not taken a good advantage of his size too well.
“Anthony Joshua is a good fighter but if you don’t throw enough punches and don’t use your size to your advantage, then I don’t know what he can do. He’s a big guy, he’s got to use his jab. Everybody uses their jab, Anthony Joshua can pretty much do the same thing because he’s a big, large and good fighter.
“He actually can box but he has to be able to be more agressive. Sometimes he gets with a guy and he doesn’t overpower him, he won’t push you down. But sometimes they push him down. You have to play the game right so you don’t let anybody outhust you”
Anthony Joshua needs a good opponent next in order to find his footing towards a possible third title shot and several options are currently being considered as he hopes to launch himself back into the ring