Anthony Joshua has applauded Oleksandr Usyk for his courage to come up against him at the heavyweight division, but warned that the move is a bit too early for the ‘inexperienced’ Russian.
Usyk will take on Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night, after just two pro fights at heavyweight.
Joshua says the unbeaten former undisputed cruiserweight world champ is taking a gamble by fighting him when he has relatively little experience at heavyweight.
He feels Usyk has “jumped in at the deep end” and says Saturday will be sink or swim time.
“He’s done well at heavyweight,” said the unified WBA Super, IBF and WBO champ.
“The difference is when say Evander Holyfield came up to heavyweight, I think he had six fights at heavyweight before he fought for the championship belt. That was against Buster Douglas.
“Usyk’s fought two heavyweights. He’s obviously had the experience of fighting at heavyweight in the World Series of Boxing when he was an amateur, but he’s jumping in at the deep end early on.
“But good luck to him, he must believe in himself. He wants to be at the top end early.
“It’s better to swim deep – to get in there and get on with it – rather than tread water. You could still end up drowning anyway. You could still get caught in a current and drown.
“You might as well jump in the deep end and try to survive,” Joshua added.
