Former WBO cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson has claimed that Anthony Joshua requested a safety guard struggle a southpaw throughout his ring stroll to struggle Oleksandr Usyk. The Brit was defeated twice by the Ukrainian within the ring after failing to become familiar together with his opponent's boxing type.

Joshua and Usyk went head-to-head on two heavyweight title fights in 2021 and 2022 with the Ukranian rising victorious on each events. Joshua struggled to get the higher of his opponent's type with Usyk adopting a southpaw stance, whereas the Brit is extra orthodox.

Now it has emerged that Joshua was involved about this distinction forward of the struggle and was asking round for recommendation. The 33-year-old has solely been concerned in 4 high-profile southpaw fights throughout his profession, two of which had been Usyk.

The revelation was made on William Hill’s Up Front podcast as Simon Jordan shared a narrative with Nelson in regards to the questions Joshua had been asking forward of the struggle.

Jordan mentioned: “I heard from a leading trainer that before Anthony [Joshua] went into one of the [Oleksandr] Usyk fights, Lawrence Okolie was fighting on the undercard, and Anthony was talking to one of the trainers asking what he should do in his fight against Usyk.”

However, Nelson had a greater story in response. The 56-year-old steered that Joshua had requested extra than simply boxing trainers about beat him, even asking the top of safety on the best way to the ring.

“I’ve got one better than that!” Nelson exclaimed. “He was walking to the ring against Usyk, my friend was the head of security walking next to him, Joshua said to him ‘how would you fight a southpaw?’, on the way to the ring!

“What I’m trying to say is that what he’s displaying to me is that right now a two-time heavyweight world champion is in a fight and he’s looking over at his corner man, and I’m thinking ‘what are you doing?’

“He should be at the point where the muzzle comes off, he goes in and gets the job done, then he comes back out and you put the muzzle back on, but he’s still thinking and acting like a novice. He’s still acting like a kid that doesn’t know what he’s doing and if you don’t know by now, you’re never going to know.”

In the top, the recommendation Joshua acquired was not very helpful as he fell to 2 snug defeats in opposition to Usyk in two consecutive bouts.