Anthony Joshua lands in Saudi Arabia ahead of rematch with Usyk

Former two-time unfied heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has touched down in Jeddah ahead of the biggest fight of his life on August 20.

‘AJ’ is set to rematch Oleksandr Usyk for the WBO, WBA, and IBF titles he lost back in September at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

The British fan favourite was outclassed over 12 rounds by Usyk, who successfully stepped up from cruiserweight after holding all four major titles in that division.

Since suffering his second career defeat, Joshua has changed things in his team by appointing Robert Garcia as his new head coach, replacing Rob McCracken, who had been with the fighter from Watford since his amateur days.

As fight week is almost close, the majority of their first camp together is done and it appears that the 32-year-old is now just trying to get acclimatised to the extremely warm weather in Saudi Arabia, which has the potential to reach 40 degrees currently.

Joshua’s most recent social media upload was captioned ‘road rage’ and it features several pictures of him running through the streets of a country that only has good memories for him.

After suffering a shock seventh-round knockout defeat to Andy Ruiz in New York three years ago, Joshua triggered a rematch clause in his contract and the pair fought again later in 2019, this time in Riyadh.

The Olympic gold medallist avoided another monumental upset when he easily outpointed Ruiz over 12 rounds to win back his belts and show he was still one of the very best heavyweights in boxing.

A dominant but uninspiring win ninth-round TKO win over Kubrat Pulev followed for Joshua before he squared off against his IBF mandatory almost a year ago.

Unlike his rematch with Ruiz, Joshua is not fancied by many to regain his belts by beating Usyk but if he does the rewards could be massive.

Joshua won his rematch with Ruiz to regain his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury announced earlier this week that he’s coming out of his retirement that began following a sixth-round KO win over Dillian Whyte in April.

‘The Gypsy King’ is talking up a potential trilogy fight with Derek Chisora right now but he will surely put that to one side to face the winner of Usyk vs. Joshua 2.

Fury would be particularly interested in a fight with ‘AJ’ which is arguably the biggest fight in boxing right now and certainly one of the most significant in British history – so, of course, both men would make a substantial amount of money for that undisputed clash.

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