Former two-weight world champion Buddy McGirt has backed Anthony Joshua to defeat Oleksandr Usyk in a potential third meeting between the two heavyweights, despite the Ukrainian\u2019s dominant record against the Briton.\n<\/p>\n
McGirt, a respected trainer in boxing circles, believes Joshua possesses the qualities needed to trouble the undisputed heavyweight champion, who has looked \u2018nothing short of sensational\u2019 throughout his career.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to say I\u2019m crazy, but there\u2019s a guy that can beat him, but he\u2019s already beaten this guy twice, and I\u2019m not talking about Tyson Fury,\u201d McGirt told Boxing News.\n<\/p>\n
When pressed by the interviewer who asked \u201cAnthony Joshua?\u201d, the American nodded in confirmation before adding,<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you that, but Anthony Joshua can beat him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The comments come despite Usyk\u2019s impressive resume, which includes dominating victories over Marco Huck, winning the World Boxing Super Series, and defeating Tyson Fury twice to claim the undisputed heavyweight championship. <\/p>\n
The southpaw has already beaten Joshua on two occasions, first in September 2021 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where he claimed the WBA, WBO, and IBF titles, before defending them successfully in their rematch in Saudi Arabia in August 2022.<\/p>\n
However, McGirt\u2019s belief that Joshua could triumph in a trilogy fight reflects the enduring appeal of the former unified champion, who remains one of the biggest names in heavyweight boxing despite those setbacks.\n<\/p>\n
Whether Joshua will get another opportunity to face Usyk remains uncertain, with the Ukrainian champion focusing on other potential opponents for now.\n<\/p>\n
The heavyweight division continues to generate debate about future matchups, with rising prospect Moses Itauma also being tipped by some, including Tyson Fury, as a future threat to the established stars of the division.\n<\/p>\n
For Joshua, any path back to facing Usyk would likely require impressive victories against other top contenders to earn another shot at the man who twice denied him undisputed glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former two-weight world champion Buddy McGirt has backed Anthony Joshua to defeat Oleksandr Usyk in a potential third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-98289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}