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Anthony Joshua has been putting himself through mental torture before trying next weekend to physically brutalise the Ukrainian genius who mesmerised him into surrendering his world heavyweight titles.
It is not easy to decipher, at the beginning of a big fight week in a desert full of mirages, which of these processes is the more problematic for him.
Joshua is striving to extricate himself from the psychological maze in which he completely lost his way against the smaller but quicker and cleverer Oleksandr Usyk in Tottenham 11 self-flagellating months ago is so complex that he struggles to articulate it clearly.
Anthony Joshua has gone through mental torture before his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk
When he sat in a small huddle in London shortly before taking flight to Saudi Arabia he did his best to explain his state of mind but contradictions were still so rife that it was hard to follow his reasoning.
At times he sounded more like a philosopher than a fighter.
Does he worry about the defeats on his record? Will it be different as he treads what for him are the uncharted waters of bidding to become a three-time world champion?
Was his glad-handing, fan-greeting, broad-smiling ring-walk in September a mistake not to be repeated? How much more attention is he really paying to his new trainer than he did to the predecessor?
Will he be more Iron Mike Tyson this time rather than a pale impersonation of fancy Floyd Mayweather? Is he even confident of winning this rematch?
The 32-year-old is burdened by criticism from some quarters, mockery by a cruel minority
Joshua says his training camps have been ‘so challenging, so draining and so brain-fatiguing’
As a 32-year-old multi-millionaire self-made by sporting triumphs, AJ is not a man to feel sorry for. But there still can be sympathy for his inner turmoil as he pursues greatness in the prize-ring. Not least because he is burdened now by criticism from some quarters, mockery by a cruel…
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Source : dailymail
