record books will be rewritten in saudi

The record books will be rewritten this weekend in Saudi Arabia as the undefeated Oleksandr Usyk looks to defend his four heavyweight world titles against the two-time heavyweight champion of the world, Anthony Joshua.

Before we take an in-depth look at the biggest fight of the year to date, we’ll assess a busy week in the boxing world, particularly outside the ring.

Former undisputed lightweight world champion, Teofimo Lopez, made a successful step up to 140lbs with a seven-round domination of the experienced Pedro Campa in Las Vegas whilst over in the UK, WBC and Lineal heavyweight champion of the world, Tyson Fury, confirmed his retirement from the sport once again and vacated the Ring Magazine belt. Elsewhere in the UK, confirmation finally arrived that Chris Eubank Jr versus Conor Benn, a huge domestic clash, will take place at London’s O2 Arena at the start of October.

Benn features on this week’s RAW: The Fight Within podcast where Kugan Cassius goes deeper into the mind of the unbeaten prospect and finds out more about the young man behind the fighter. The son of former two-weight world champion, Nigel Benn, discusses the trials and tribulations of growing up in the spotlight and how he has managed the weight of expectation not just throughout his boxing career, but throughout life. The podcast is available to listen to on all major streaming platforms and can be watched on our YouTube channel.

Now back to one of the most highly anticipated rematches in heavyweight boxing history.

After putting in one of the best performances of 2021 when capturing the belts from Anthony Joshua last September, it looked as though Oleksandr Usyk’s career would have to be put on hold due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. However, the undefeated Ukrainian was granted military release to enable him to take the rematch with Joshua.

With the date and location set, both fighters made some changes to their camps for the second fight. Joshua, who’d previously been trained by his GB Boxing coach Robert McCracken for the vast majority of his career, decided it was time for a change and employed the experienced former world champion boxer, and current world championship-winning trainer, Robert Garcia as his new head coach.

The move was applauded by many with Joshua seemingly lacking the killer instinct in the first fight, something he’s built up a reputation for having over the past 10 years. Garcia’s training style will more than likely bring that out of AJ in the rematch and that could ultimately prove crucial in him becoming a three-time world champion.

Due to the situation in his homeland, Usyk has had to make some minor alterations to his camp too, with the Ukrainian now basing himself in Dubai, and similarly to Joshua, he’s drafted in some extra support from a training standpoint with Deontay Wilder’s coach Malik Scott playing a big part in his preparations.

With the fight fast approaching, there’s plenty on the line for both men. Victory for either will cement their place at the top of the heavyweight ladder whereas defeat will tell a completely different story.

For Joshua, defeat could well be career-defining. It would be his third loss in five fights and his second to Usyk, so unless it’s contentious, there won’t really be much chance of a trilogy. What will work in his favour, though, is the likelihood of the world title belts becoming vacant after this fight. Most of the governing bodies are set to call for their mandatories and unless Usyk fights those mandatories, each individual belt will potentially become vacant meaning that there could well still be an opportunity for Joshua to become a three-time world champion. If not, there are still big-money fights with the likes of Dillian Whyte, Deontay Wilder and his old amateur foe, Joe Joyce, that could potentially be made further down the line.

For Usyk, it’s unlikely a defeat would be as damaging to his career. It would only be his first loss as a professional and he’ll have plenty of time to rebuild and get himself back into world title contention as a heavyweight. Alternatively, he could drop back down to cruiserweight or even attempt to become a three-weight world champion by plying his trade in the newly created bridgerweight division.

However, there is one thing that is for certain. Whoever wins this weekend will not only go down in the history books as one of the best heavyweights of this generation, but one of the best heavyweights in the history of the sport.

Who will that be? Only time will tell.