I beat Oleksandr Usyk in amateur fight, here is how Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua can get revenge over him

23/05/2024 10:03

Lukasz Wawrzyczek isn’t a name that will be familiar to the average boxing fan.

But the Polish puncher pulled off a rare feat in 2005 by beating Oleksandr Usyk in an amateur bout.

The pair met in a Poland vs Ukraine international tournament in the Polish city of Leszno.

Usyk – who recently became the undisputed heavyweight champion by beating Tyson Fury in a barnburner on Saturday night – was just 18 years old at the time.

“He was already a European junior champion. He was much bigger than me, but I said, ‘Yeah, why not, let’s fight,’ and we did,” Wawrzyczek told the BBC.

It was a nip-and-tuck affair that went right down to the wire.

“My national team coach said, ‘Lukasz, it’s a draw. If you lose this round you lose the fight’,” Wawrzyczek recalls.

“So I went the whole round [going] forward and I won that third round and the fight.”

But in the end, he was able to do what Anthony Joshua and Fury couldn’t by defeating Usyk via split decision.

So how did he do it? And what can Joshua and Fury learn from his victory?

“If you’re fighting a southpaw you have to attack him, you can’t give him any space to win,” he added.

“He [Fury] was [going] a little bit backward and that’s why I think he lost the fight.

“My strategy if I was training Tyson Fury would be very similar to the situation Anthony Joshua had in his fight against Usyk – he did one round like that and he won that round, but he stopped attacking him, that’s why he lost.

“Tyson Fury’s huge, he’s massive, he’s much bigger than Usyk, so he could be that person.”

Fury will have the opportunity at redemption when he rematches the Ukrainian on October 12/13 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

There is a two-way rematch clause signed into their contract, which Fury’s promoter Frank Warren insists his client will trigger in the coming days.

Joshua – who lost on points to Usyk in September 2021 and August 2022 – may also get the opportunity to exact his revenge provided he gets through his next fight.

The Watford powerhouse is set to face the winner of Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois on either September 20 or 21 at Wembley Stadium.

After this, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, is targeting a fight between the winner of Joshua’s next outing and whoever gets their hand raised in the Usyk vs Fury rematch.