Anthony Joshua has warned Oleksandr Usyk that, come their $100million rematch next Saturday, he will be fighting an AJ as different from their first bout as the new venue in the Arabian desert is from their original battleground in north London.
But Usyk, who took Joshua’s world titles in that fight, shrugs and says: ‘He will find that I too will be a different fighter here in Saudi Arabia.’
Nothing, it appears, in sun-baked old Jeddah will be the same as it was in the autumnal chill of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Usyk’s changes are physical and his much-increased muscularity.