It’s fight week for Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, who are both heading into this weekend’s heavyweight title rematch in Saudi Arabia. Here, Matchroom CEO Frank Smith talks to our friends at Fight Hub TV about his expectations for the rematch and why he believes Joshua will be better suited to pull out a win this time around.
Frank Smith on how he expects Usyk vs Joshua 2 to play out
“I think Anthony Joshua will knockout Oleksandr Usyk…I think it’s very easy to say ‘AJ’s got to do this, this is the way it’s got to go, this is the way it’s gonna happen.’ I truly believe he’ll go in there and stop him.
“AJ’s been working towards this moment, not just the last three months of training camp, but since that fight in September in Tottenham Hotspur. So he’s been working on what needs to change and what needs to improve to get to this point and I believe he’s implemented changes that’s going to get him the win Saturday night.”
On if he can expect Joshua to be looking for the knockout
“I think that’s one of his key strengths, is the knockout. So arguably it would be great if he could go in there and knock him out but, again, it’s much easier for everyone to say ‘go in there, do this, do that’, you know, everyone watching at home. But they’re not opposite Oleksandr Usyk who’s obviously very good at negating things that other people are good at as well. So I’m sure there’s a game plan they’ve worked on…I think he would’ve learned a lot in that first to take into the second fight and I believe he get the job done.”