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      Yomi
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      Anthony Joshua has been hailed as the best heavyweight athlete of the last two decades, ahead of boxing rivals Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.

      That is according to Tony Bellew, who labelled the 31-year-old Brit superstar an “unbelievable specimen” who is on “another level to everybody else.”

      Joshua is in his second reign as world heavyweight champion after avenging his shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019.

      AJ was heavily linked to face Fury this summer in an all-British unification clash before plans for the mega-fight were scuppered.

      Fury, 32, will return to action against fierce rival Wilder in their trilogy fight on 24th July at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

      Meanwhile, Joshua is slated to defend his titles against Oleksandr Usyk in September after the WBO enforced the mandatory fight.

      Before the Usyk clash, Bellew insisted that the two-time champ is continuing to improve his boxing IQ.

      The 38-year-old former boxer, who was knocked out by Usyk in his final fight in 2018, doesn’t believe Joshua’s upcoming opponent is “big enough and dangerous enough” to cause him problems.

      Bellew told talkSPORT: “I know exactly how good Usyk is. He’s an amazing talent. Best fighter I ever fought.

      “But I don’t believe he’s big enough and dangerous enough to cause AJ problems.

      “Well, he’s big enough to cause him problems, I don’t think he’d last long enough to defeat him. But he will cause problems while he’s standing and he’s [AJ] going to have to get rid of him. He’ll put the pressure on, make him pay for every single thing he earns in there.

      “AJ is the best athletic heavyweight I’ve seen in the last two decades. As an athlete, mate, he’s unbelievable. He’s an unbelievable specimen, he really is. The power he can move at, the speed he can move at, the dexterity; it’s unbelievable.

      “He’s on another level to everybody else. He’s just got to keep improving on that boxing IQ, which he is. He showed that against Andy Ruiz Jr in the rematch. How unbelievable he was.”

      Joshua successfully defended his championship titles against Kubrat Pulev in December 2020.

      The Brit’s ninth-round KO win over Pulev was his first fight since his rematch with Ruiz in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

      Bellew claimed that Joshua would need to do “something different” for his upcoming fight with Usyk.

      “In the Pulev fight, he went back a little bit and showed the old things he was doing and the way he broke down the big men with the speed that counts,” he explained.

      “But then he’s going to have to show something different against Oleksandr Usyk again. He’s going to have to box at times, put pressure on and he’ll have to get hit as well.

      “So, he’ll have to show different things that he hasn’t done in his career so far, but then again, he’s always improving, always getting better and it’s just fantastic to see.”

      Source: Sportbible

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