For five years, Anthony Joshua was untouchable. Young, technically gifted, carved out of marble, able to sell out the most massive venues in England—Wembley Stadium, the O2 Arena, Manchester Arena—Joshua occupied the summit of British sports the way fried toast occupied the summit of British breakfast.
More than just the heir apparent to British heavyweight legend Lennox Lewis, Joshua embodied boxing’s hopes and dreams for someone pure who could save the sport from its sloppy self. Fleet of foot, powerful of fist, cerebral of … brain.
And then:
Joshua, in his first foray to Madison Square Garden, learned at the hands of doughy Andy Ruiz what Burgoyne, Cornwallis and, to a lesser extent, Tesco supermarkets learned the hard way: Don’t bother coming to America. It ain’t gonna end well.
Joshua Out To Prove That Size Matters
On hopping back across the pond, Joshua engineered a rematch with Ruiz in Saudi Arabia, easily taking care of business against his woefully unprepared (and even more doughy than before) opponent. He regained his WBO, WBA, and IBF titles in the process and has defended the trio of belts once since. (The lineal title and WBC strap reside with fellow Brit and stylistic and temperamental opposite Tyson Fury. A Joshua-Fury clash—which would grind the UK to a halt like an Oasis show headlining a Liverpool-Man U soccer riot—has yet to be made.)
Only 31, Joshua (24-1-0, 22 KOs) still has time to restore his place as boxing’s golden boy (er, other golden boy — sorry, Oscar), but first he’ll have to get past Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Saturday.
Usyk (18-0-0, 13), the 34-year-old former cruiserweight from Ukraine, is stepping up to the heavyweight class for only the third time in his career. Thus far, Usyk hasn’t taken great advantage of the division’s eased weight restrictions, fighting at 215 pounds and 217 and change. When he steps through the ropes Saturday, Usyk will be giving up significant weight to Joshua (who usually comes in around 245), as well as three inches of height and four inches of reach.
Money Trickles In On Underdog Usyk
It all adds up to comfortable margins for Joshua at the betting window, with the champ opening as a -280 favorite at Circa Sports and the rounds total at 9.5 (Over -120/Under +100). As of Friday afternoon, Joshua dipped to -260 and Usyk to +220, while juice on the 9.5 rounds prop jumped to Over -140/Under +120.
“So far bigger action on Usyk has caused the line to drop some,” said Nick Kalikas, risk supervisor at Circa Sports. “Nothing too sharp as of yet either way.”
In his last time out, Usyk went the distance and won by wide margins against Dereck Chisora, who had nearly 40 pounds on the Ukrainian. But Chisora, who’s been knocked around by the best (and some merely above average) that the division has to offer—Fury, Dillian Whyte, David Haye, Joseph Parker—is no Joshua.
Aside from comfortably overwhelming a just-happy-to-be-there Ruiz in their rematch, Joshua floored Bulgarian refrigerator-with-legs Kubrat Pulev in December in a statement bout for the “it” kid.
Older and smaller aren’t typically recipes for success in boxing, so it’s understandable that Usyk is a healthy underdog against Joshua. Then again, pillowy and unaccomplished aren’t either, and that seemed to work out just fine for Ruiz on one magic night in the Garden.
