Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua 2 prediction: Joe Joyce picks who will win

Oleksandr Usyk will beat Anthony Joshua in the pair’s rematch in the Middle East this summer unless the latter does ‘something drastically different’, according to British heavyweight rival Joe Joyce.

Joshua, 32, suffered the second professional defeat of his career when he was outboxed by the Ukrainian at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September, losing the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight world titles in the process.

The defeat seemingly scuppered any hopes Joshua had of finally securing his much anticipated bout with Tyson Fury any time soon, but he will have the opportunity for revenge after it was revealed that he has activated a rematch clause in his contract.

For the rematch, AJ has replaced his long-time trainer Rob McCracken with Mikey Garcia‘s brother Robert Garcia, with Angel Fernandez also remaining in his corner.

But Joyce believes Usyk will beat him again in the rematch – set to take place at the Jeddah Superdrome in Saudi Arabia.

The Olympic silver medallist told Boxing Social: “I thought as soon as the fight started with him and Usyk, Usyk went straight to work.

“He knew how to beat Joshua and now that he’s already beaten him, to do it again will be kind of the same.

“That’s unless Joshua makes some drastic changes, which I guess he did against Ruiz and then he can say ‘three time’. But maybe it’s all part of the plan, I don’t know. It’s a big ask, but let’s see what happens.

“Joshua can obviously bang, he has fast hands and decent footwork. He fought the wrong fight when they fought first, he tried to outbox the boxer.

“I’ve said on multiple occasions he could have gone out there, roughed him up, walked him down, and tried to knock him out. I think that’s what he’s going to have to try and do.