ANTHONY JOSHUA showed off his immense power in training for his fight with Oleksandr Usyk by virtually destroying a medicine ball.
The unified heavyweight champion defends his crown against mandatory challenger Usyk on September 25 at Tottenham’s stadium.
AJ has started his camp in Team GB’s Sheffield HQ and got to work with some power drills.
Joshua uploaded a video throwing a medicine ball against the wall, working on his explosiveness.
The Brit, 32, will take in a size advantage against ex-cruiserweight king Usyk, 34, despite the Ukrainian piling on the pounds.
It will be only Usyk’s third fight at heavyweight, having beat Chazz Witherspoon, 39, in 2019, and then Derek Chisora, 37, a year later.
Since the win over Chisora on points, he has been bulking up and recently scaled 16st 4lb in an online video.
That is still almost a stone lighter than AJ, who weighed in at 17st 2lb for his last win against Kubrat Pulev, 40, in December 2019.
‘AJ’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF BEAST’
Promoter Eddie Hearn told talkSPORT: “I think that Usyk will never be a fully fledged heavyweight – a real heavyweight in terms of size.
“But what he will always have is a huge amount of skill.
“It takes time for people to bed into heavyweight, so put it this way, it would’ve been a lot easier fight for AJ a year-and-a-half ago.
“Now Usyk has fought a real heavyweight contender in Chisora, that will actually help him to start to understand what needs to be done.
“But AJ’s a different kind of beast. A good big guy will always beat a good small guy, so we’ll see.”
DREAM TEAM IS BACK! SIGN UP NOW FOR THE 21/22 SEASON FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN £100,000
Joshua was only ordered to fight Usyk by the WBO after his all-British unification bout with Tyson Fury collapsed.
Fury, 32, was instead made to face Deontay Wilder, 35, once again after the American won his right to a trilogy bout in arbitration.
It leaves AJ waiting even longer for his shot at heavyweight supremacy, but he warned Usyk poses just as much of a threat as anyone else.
