Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22) was happy with his handiwork when he came face-to-face with conqueror Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) this week.
The duo were promoting their rematch set to take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on August 20.
Ukrainian southpaw Usyk, 35, wrested the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles from England’s Joshua, 32, by unanimous decision in Tottenham last September.
And although Joshua was criticised after the bout for not being more aggressive, he insists he got his pound of flesh.
“He’s got a slice scar on his eye… from me,” Joshua said. “I was thinking back, I cut up a few people’s faces; Paul Butlin, Usyk, I split Pulev’s lip.
“I just grazed [Andy] Ruiz, he doesn’t count because I mean properly smashing faces in. I like that stuff.”
Joshua went on to explain his approach to the first Usyk fight that saw him lose by scores of 117-112, 115-113 and 116-112 at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium.
“One of my strengths was my power but I always wanted to go down that path of being a clean boxer, hit and not get hit, especially if I want to have a long and successful career,” he said.
“You need to have good defence but I moved away from the ferocious side of boxing where I knew I could hit and stun people. And I do miss the days of slicing people’s faces open and hurting them, for sure. So, I am looking forward to getting back to that.”
In the wake of his loss Joshua got rid of his longtime coach Robert McCracken, keeping on board Angel Fernandez and adding famed American trainer Robert Garcia to his team.
“In terms of Rob [McCracken] not being in the camp, it’s cool,” Joshua said. “No problem. Boxing is boxing. I respect Robert Garcia and I respect Angel but a different environment was needed at that time. I knew what I wanted to do. I wasn’t forced, it was my own decision.
“From 2019 we brought Joby [Clayton] and Angel on straight after. I wanted to grow, I had three options: change what I had completely, bring in new people and add to the team, or keep what we have, don’t make any changes. At that stage in 2019, I said let’s just add to what we had. Now to completely change is the last part to the jigsaw. That’s where we are now.”
Joshua says that his corner for his first fight with Usyk was in disarray.
“There was a lot going on in the corner and that didn’t help,” he said. “A corner is like a pitstop. You’ve got probably 55 seconds in total to calm down, hydrate, simple instructions. That’s the way you should do it. Too many voices at once is definitely not good for anybody.
“I was being told things like ‘double jab, right, left hook’ it wasn’t like ‘take the fight to this fucker, listen you’re losing the fight’. A trainer needs to tap into that psychological aspect now because if you can overcome your mind, you can give more.
“I swear I thought I was [winning]. I thought I was looking like Muhammad Ali in there.
“I can show you sparring footage where I’m on the ropes leaning back. They tell you to train adversity, right. So put your hands down and let a motherfucker throw punches at you and you just sit, sit, sit. That’s how you gain confidence. So, in the fight in the 12th, I’m doing this stuff.
“Throughout the fight I thought I was winning but at that stage I kind of knew it was close. I thought at that stage I was well in the fight because it didn’t seem like there was any real communication as to where I’m at. Like ‘you’re losing this fight… you’re down by two rounds’. I didn’t get that.
“I’m not blaming anyone by saying that but I didn’t get any impression that I was losing the fight. I thought we were well in it. That’s why when they announced the name I was kind of like ‘huh?’
“So, I was jabbing and jabbing. It was hard to accept afterwards. Now when I watch it back, I think he won by three rounds, that’s probably from the ninth round onwards.”
