- Champion weighs in at 240lb, his lightest since 2014
- Power should give Joshua edge in demanding challenge
Anthony Joshua appears to have chosen speed and fluidity as a way to counter the versatile skill-set with which Oleksandr Usyk will threaten him in the ring on Saturday night. At Friday’s weigh-in he scaled 240lb which, apart from one other occasion, is the lightest he has been since he was still a relative novice fighting against Michael Sprott almost seven years ago.
The exception occurred in December 2019 when, after losing his world heavyweight titles to Andy Ruiz Jr in a shocking defeat six months earlier, Joshua weighed 237lb in the rematch. Having been stopped by Ruiz Jr in the first fight, Joshua opted to box cautiously and move constantly around the ring against his poorly-conditioned opponent.