OLEKSANDR USYK claims he is more worried about his son’s first month at school than fighting Anthony Joshua.
Ukraine’s 34-year-old former undisputed cruiserweight king gets a crack at the Brit icon’s WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles at the Tottenham Stadium on Saturday.
The 18-0 southpaw could be spending hours watching tape and trying to work out if AJ plans to recreate his stick-and-move style from the Andy Ruiz Jr rematch win – or if he will reemploy the seek-and-destroy skillset that helped him obliterate Kubrat Pulev in December.
But the ice-cool leftie is more concerned with six-year-old Mykhailo’s scary start at big school.
“At the moment I don’t think about Anthony Joshua,” Usyk revealed. “I don’t think about what he will do, what he will use or how he will box.
“I have a little bit of timing to finish my training camp now, I might think about it then.
“Right now I think more about how my son feels at school because he has just started first grade and he really did not want to go and do it.
“He was saying: ‘I don’t want to go to school, dad. I am bored at school and you’re not there.’
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“But everything is fine now, he seems to have calmed down. So I probably think more about that than what Anthony Joshuua will do in the ring.”
Joshua was ringside for Usyk’s second heavyweight fight in October, when he had to overcome a poor start to outpoint the relentless Derek Chisora.
Delboy has since signed with AJ’s management team and spent time in the Sheffield gym going over tactics and he insists Usyk does not have the power to trouble his close friend.
But the challenger reckons the champ and his fans are falling into a trap if they think that sub-par Wembley arena performance guarantees them a successful defence.
He said: “I am very grateful to all those that support me and everything else but they expect too much from athletes.
“Some of them very much do not understand what is happening in the ring, how difficult it is or, in some cases, how easy it is. People just have an image that they think up.
“The fact is I boxed Derek for 12 rounds but he is actually a very difficult guy to beat. If you look at his two fights with Tyson Fury then he has gone 22 rounds with him.”
Joshua has been the biggest cash-cow in boxing since his first world title win in 2016 but Usyk reckons he has the perfect background for milking him dry.
“My first job was helping my mother on a big cow farm,” he revealed.
“She had about 50 cows under her command and they all had to be milked and fed and put in their place when the shed needed to be cleaned out.
“I was there every day after school.
“I work hard now so that my children never have to worry about helping me at work.
“They can just go to school and get knowledge and not have to worry about helping me at work.”
