The unified world heavyweight boxing championship goes on the line in Saudi Arabia when reigning IBF, WBO, WBA (Super), and IBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk gives Anthony Joshua, the man he won the belts off, a chance to get them back. Additionally, The Ring heavyweight title will also be on the line after being recently vacated by Tyson Fury.
Essentially, all but one of the major heavyweight belts are on the line in this one. The only one that isn't the WBC title, held by Fury. According to reports, the organisation has given Fury until August 27 to decide on his retirement status and either vacate or look to book a defence.
They met in late September 2021, and Usyk won convincingly. The former undisputed crusierweight champion put on a clinic over 12 rounds, giving Joshua trouble from the southpaw stance. As Roy Jones Jr put it: "Usyk didn't beat [Joshua]. He dominated him."
The Ukrainian always had a path to victory in the bout, and that was to outbox the bigger opponent. While Joshua was fighting in front of a home crowd in England, it was Usyk's night. The bigger fighter had few answers for the faster, precise Usyk. The scorecards reflected that, with Usyk winning nine, eight and seven of the 12 rounds on the three judges' scorecards (funnily enough the UK judge was the latter, giving Joshua five rounds).
Joshua had a one-sided rematch clause in the bout agreement for that fight, so here we are again.
Given the dominance in the first fight, it would be hard to see Joshua make drastic improvements, turn the tables and outbox Usyk. However, there are definitely a few factors that come into play to add to the intrigue of how the rematch might go down.
Let's look at the Joshua camp first. After losing to Usyk in their first meeting, the 32-year-old dropped long-time coach Rob McCracken and has been working with Robert Garcia – a former IBF junior lightweight champion who has since moved on to have a few impressive coaching career. Garcia has been open about wanting to see Joshua fight an aggressive style of boxing in the rematch, and with Joshua's pedigree as a knockout puncher, that style of fight could work into his hands.
For Usyk, he has had the disruption of doing his part in the Ukrainian resistance against the invasion by Russia. In February, Usyk travelled to Ukraine and joined the country's territorial defence forces. However, he left the country again in late March in preparation for this rematch. Throughout the camp, many have commented on Usyk appearing to have bulked up, however on the scales he weighed in at 100.5kg which was roughly the mark he hit in the first fight.
Joshua weighed in at 110.5kg - about 2kg heavier than in the first fight.
The main event is expected to get underway around 9.30am on Sunday from King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah. The event gets underway from about 5am, though there are no big names on the card before the main event, aside from perhaps Filip Hrgovic, who got his name out there by calling out every highly-ranked heavyweight under the sun not all that long ago. He takes on fellow unbeaten heavyweight Zhilei Zhang in the card's penultimate bout.
The bout can be streamed via the DAZN website or app, which comes with a subscription fee of $14.99. There is no additional pay-per-view cost of the card after that. The Herald will be bringing live updates of the main event from about 9.30am.
Oleksandr Usyk
Record: 19-0
Height: 191cm
Weight: 100.5kg
Reach: 198cm
Anthony Joshua
Record: 24-2
Height: 198cm
Weight: 110.5kg
Reach: 208cm
