The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Anthony Joshua upset by Usyk

Episode Date: September 26, 2021

Chris sits down with DAZN broadcaster and former boxer, Sergio Mora for an emergency reaction podcast. They break down Oleksandr Usyk beating Anthony Joshua to become a two-weight world champion with a unanimous decision win. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We have an upset in boxing. Joshua for the second time in three years is no longer the heavyweight champion. Joshua losing a unanimous decision to Alexander Usik. Usik, just three fights into his heavyweight career is now the unified heavyweight champion. Talk about that. I'm bringing my friend Sergio Mora, broadcast partner over at DeZone, former junior middleweight champion. Sergio, we just watched this moments ago. What's your reaction to Usik?

beating Joshua. Well, listen, when you asked my prediction, I said it was going to be a fight that went the distance. It did go the distance. I told you that if this was pre-Andi Ruiz, Anthony Joshua, I would pick Usik to win this fight. But you got to hand it to Usik. He controlled the fight from beginning to end. I thought he won this fight convincingly. I mean, it was a close fight. If you had the rounds up and Joshua did have his moments. He was able to find his way in there in the mid-round, but Usik, hands down, you got to give it to him. The game plan was there, the pot shots. He had to face a little bit of adversity too with the body shots. Joshua found a home with a leptok to the body. All in all, I mean, for Ussick to go into opponent's hometown, not only Joshua, he goes into

other people's hometown and takes the championship away from the champion, shutting down the crowd, the going against the promoter, the judges. You got to applaud that, man. You know how hard that is to do? Just all around impressive, impressive performance. Yeah, you knew Ussick was going to be comfortable. He's been a road warrior for his entire career, whether it's going to Latvia to fight Bredis,

going to the UK to fight Bellew and then Chesora. Now in front of 65,000 pro-Joshua fans in Tottenham. He didn't look rattled at all. And I did pick Sergio Joshua to win by knockup. One of the things I said this week was Ussick's got to find a way to win those early rounds and make Joshua uncomfortable, and that's exactly what he did.

I mean, he came out in those first three rounds. He was bouncing on his toes. He was moving around the ring. He was landing the cleaner shots. And what I saw from Joshua was a complete lack of adjustments. I mean, he just seemed content to sort of stand

there in the middle of the ring and just sort of turn with Usoc. Like he wasn't using his size advantage to pressure Usik. He wasn't using his longer jab to, or his long jab, I should say, to land, you know, kind of set up shots. He was just kind of standing there in the middle of the ring and throwing kind of a pawing jab out there at times. I was, you know, we get three rounds in, Sergio, and I'm thinking to myself, like, Josh was going to have to win by knockout. There's no way he's winning this fight by decision. Yeah, and I kind of saw that myself. The thing about footwork is

that whenever you have brilliant footwork, I mean, Ussick looked like a ballerina, like a Ukrainian ballerina in there throwing punches. He wasn't allowing the bigger man to set his feet. I know you hear that often, but to do it for 36 minutes and doing it laterally, going to the left and to the right, and doing it from the Southpaw stance, which naturally has that advantage. And Joshua hasn't faced many South Pauls as a professional. He was able to capitalize on his advantage, the entire fight with focus.

What's the thing these Ukrainian fighters and these Eastern European fighters have, not only the Olympic background, but the focus, the focus to do it, the entire fight, you can be winning eight rounds and get knocked out by a big puncher like that. The fighter like Lomanchenko, they come from that school. And this is just impressive, man. This is a mental, mental warfare, as much as it was somewhat physical, but he took the physical away from this fight. He took the heavyweight away from this championship fight. focus on Joshua for a second what disappointed you the most about the way he fought you know there was a little doubt in joshua's eyes in midway through the fight realizing that you know what i can't touch this guy because he didn't utilize the jab the only way Joshua was going to win and look we only we only picked joshua to win by knock up but

there was there was times where uza could have knocked him how they looked like and hurt him because there was that Andy Ruiz going to his head again. You've seen it pop up a little bit in Joshua's eyes. But I would like to have seen him go to the body earlier. He did it midway, but it wasn't enough. So body earlier, not focus on the head of Usi, just focus on touching him to the chest, hitting him in the shoulders, and banging him away with the body.

He was able to do that. Usik caught his second win, but before he caught it, I think Uso could have actually done some, built some more rounds and more momentum. because Usook was a little winded going into the eighth, going to the championship rounds, but he did it. You know, one of the things I said at the top was, of course, this is not the first time Joshua has lost,

not the first time he has dropped his titles, the first time happened against Ruiz in 2019. That loss, Sergio, was shocking. But I think this loss was a lot worse. Like you can look at the Ruiz loss, even in the aftermath, and say, all right, he got caught by an equilibrium changing punch to the temple that screwed him up for the rest of the fight. There was no equilibrium changing punch from Usik.

This was just a beating from a guy who is an accomplished boxer. I mean, this, it was an upset, but probably shouldn't be considered that big of an upset. Because Usik is, like Joshua, an Olympic gold medalist, at Cruiserweight, he fought everybody. He went through the best of the best in the world boxing super series. He took on Tony Bellew. This guy's the real deal. And while he didn't land that highlight real shot against Joshua, he beat him up. And I would say, you're the fighter.

You can tell me if you agree. But I think a loss like this is harder for Joshua to bounce back from. Because he wasn't just hit with one shot that changed the course of the fight. He was hit with a lot of shots that completely changed the fight. And there's really, I mean, there's no reason to believe in my mind that things will be a lot different in the rematch. No, no, I got to say I disagree. The first loss is always the hardest. And it's always the hardest because it came by knockout.

If he would have lost to Andy Ruiz by decision and he could have regrouped, fine. But he got embarrassed in the biggest stage at MSG on a fight that he was supposed to win and he was a 12 to one favorite or whatever it was. But that was a harder loss. This one is going to be mentally harder to come back from. The first one was physical. This one's going to be mental. And the older you get as a fighter, you start to, you know, obviously your body starts breaking down, but mentally, if the hunger's not there to regroup and focus on what went

wrong, especially when you got pretty much routed, you got outboxing beating up for 12 rounds. It wasn't a physical beat down. It was mental warfare at its absolute best. He, Usik, just never let the head. heavyweight champ, fight like a heavyweight champ. And that's, think about what that does to the mentality of the heavyweight champion of the world, man. And this is the exact same thing that we saw with Tyson Fury and Deonté Wilder. I mean, these are mental things that Wilder and Joshua

are going to have to come back to the table and say, man, do I really want this? But it's all mental. It's all hard. Look, Usik is the older fighter. He's 34 years old. But as he said afterwards, you have not seen the best of Alexander Usik at heavyweight. I mean, you give him another training camp and you give him the benefit of getting 12 rounds in with Joshua, tasting the power, tasting the speed. Usik's going to be better. I mean, we're not going to get a situation like we had in Saudi Arabia, Sergio, where Andy Ruiz ate his way up to 283 pounds and wasn't in any kind of shape to fight Joshua in the rematch.

Usik is going to come in a better version of himself in this next fight. And that's what makes me more leery to think that Joshua can find a way to avenge this loss. You know, it was going to be a close fight for Andy Ruiz and Joshua. I thought Joshua was going to come back and do well. But I didn't think he was going to box for 12 rounds that way he did. So he impressed me. So I don't put nothing past Joshua. But you're right.

I don't see him out boxing Usik. The only way he beats Usik is by knock. And we didn't get a taste of that. We didn't get a taste of a knockdown or Usik being badly hurt or getting winded and not having that other gear. He passed every test, Usik did. Even when he felt like he was getting a little bit fatigue physically, he found another gear.

He was able to not get hit by the big shots, not let the momentum shift. Usik dominated. I just don't see Joshua coming back in and regaining the championship. Not only is it one of the hardest things to do in boxing. That's why two-time and three-time division champions are rare. but when it does happen, it's historic and it's very special and we'll realize why. I don't think Joshua is able to do it, not against who soon? Well, which brings us to a topic you and I often disagree on.

After the loss to Andy Ruiz, a lot of people are calling for Rob McCracken's head after that fight, saying Joshua needs to shake up his team. You are, to your credit, you know, consistently have said that you don't make change your team. Stick with the guy. You know, if you got a good guy, stick with him. do you still feel that way about Rob McCracken and Anthony Joshua? You know, I was listening to Rob McRacken's instructions in the corner, and he was giving them the right instructions.

I just think mentally Joshua was kind of going in and out, and we've seen that before. He kind of gets lost in the corner, and I don't really think he absorbs what he should be absorbing. But if it's going to help him mentally, yes, bring someone else in. Yes, I'm going to go out and say this, Because like you said, Joshua was already in his 30s. There's a second time he loses badly on the big stage.

Maybe it's time to bring in someone else, just like Wilder did, but, you know, you can go about it a different way. Bring in someone finally tuned that could show you how to fight behind the jab, fight taller, go to the body, bring in a strategy. And I just follow around a fighter like Ussick. So, yeah, this time around, I say bring in someone. Yeah, I just didn't like the strategy at all. I mean, one of the things I saw with Derek Chisora against Ussick was that in the first few rounds, the pressure of Chisora got to Usook. Chisora just couldn't maintain that pressure because he's in his late 30s and doesn't have the conditioning for that.

I never, outside of like some spurts in like the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, I didn't see Joshua applying pressure. I didn't see him trying to marshal those physical tools in the ring. So I think you got to go in a different direction. I mean, Vladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis could be horribly boring, but they were enormously successful because they were trained by Emmanuel Stewart who groomed them to use those physical gifts. Joshua is 6'6 foot 6.

He should be using his physical tools as a weapon against smaller fighters. So if we're at this point of the careers of Rob McCracken and Anthony Joshua, and they're not doing that, I think it's time. Now, Manuel Stewart is no longer with us, but maybe it's somebody else. I mean, you mentioned trainer changes. You know, Ben Davison is a great trainer, but you can't argue the success that Sugar Hill

has had with Tyson Fury. Sugar Hill brought more of an offensive-oriented approach to Tyson Fury, and that helped Fury pick up the knockout against Deonté Wilder. I'm not saying make a change for the sake of making a change, but if you identify somebody out there that can bring something else out of you that hasn't been there yet, I think you've got to do it. I think we're at that point, Sergio, where it's, we're just going back to Rob and going back to the...

I'm not even just talking about the trainer. Like, you've got to change everything, man. Like, you've got to get out of the UK for your training camp. You've got to make yourself a little bit more uncomfortable. Go to the U.S., go to Big Bear, go to Colorado Springs. Just do something a little bit different to try to get some of that fireback that you had early in your career. Yeah, kind of like Rocky going to Russia, right?

I mean, basically, but you've seen that, though, too. Like, guys, I mean, I don't know if you change your training camp location, but I see it all the time in boxing where guys, you know, bounce around, to different places and, you know, have success because of it. Whatever, whatever works, man. Whatever works for the fighter. Anthony Joshua doesn't seem like the mentally unfit guy that starts blaming everybody. So you got to like the fortitude he has there.

So I think he'll just want to regroup with the exact same people. Maybe get out of the UK, but, you know, it was a game plan and a strategy that went wrong with him. And here's the thing about Chisora. You brought up Chisora. You know what Chisora did? that he had success that Joshua did not do. He used his physical tools. He got in the inside, made it rough,

and started using his body on Ussick a little bit. Joshua didn't do that. Whenever you're the bigger man and you're somewhat in a clinch, you got to get the man and you got to man handle them. You got to put your weight on them. You got to make them kill your strength, your size. Let the referee, you know, warn you about that, not to wrestle, not to bleed owner, not to bend,

but too late. The legs already absorbed that. So that's one thing Joshua didn't do that. Sorah had success doing. If he looks back, he can look at the jab, more jab, more body shot, more wrestling, more clenching, more getting them against the ropes, making it a dirty fight. So these are all things that he can go back to the drawing board and look

once he looks at this fight. And it's not even, it's not even dirty to lean on a guy. It's just kind of using a tactic. Tyson Fury does that all the time. I remember when he did that to Steve Cunningham. He did it to Deontay Wilder even, like leaned on him and sap the strength of Wilder's legs, forcing him to hold up that, you know, 300 pound frame, whatever he is.

That's a tactic. You're right. Anthony Joshua needs to utilize. By the way, speaking of Fury, what do you think Tyson Fury was thinking as he watched Alexander Usick dismantle Anthony Joshua? I think he was thinking,

imagine what I would do. Imagine what I'm thinking. I think he's probably counting money, though. Like, oh, there goes 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 40 million. You know what? You know what? Deary doesn't fight for money.

He's the type of guy. Everybody fights for money. I get it. But when it comes to the gypsy king, you know, damn well, he fights for pride. He fights for that. I mean, he comes from that from that background. So he knows that it's about ego and pride and proving that he's the best. And he's done that.

But I think more it's about what can Fury do. I mean, Fury has some excellent boxing skills too. And he's way bigger and longer and stronger than Usik. So that's what I think he was thinking. If Usik, a smaller version of me can do this, imagine what I would do. Oh, I mean, Fury with his boxing skills, you'd make him a huge. favorite against Joshua based on on what what we saw there but man he's got to be you know not now if he beats dionte wilder which is a tough fight we shouldn't discount dionte wilder's chances now he's

maybe looking at a dillian white fight and kind of crossing his fingers and hopes that Joshua wins a rematch i don't know man that's that that fight could be another one that winds up in the waste basket of boxing fights that never actually happen your favorite your favorite waste by the way. I hate everything about that. Last thought on Joshua, like, you know, Eddie Hearn said afterwards they're going to go into an immediate rematch. They're going to check on the eye of Joshua. Herne had some concerns about maybe an eye socket potentially being broken. Do you see him recovering from this fight? Physically, yeah, absolutely. I think physically the warrior in him is going to want to come, you know, back to the ring as fast as possible.

I like to say the bigger the ego, the bigger the fighter, the bigger chip on the shoulder they're going to have. So, you know, Joshua's going to want to come back ASAP. And if he's cleared, I think the more time that passes, the worse is going to be for him, not only, you know, because of his age, but because of the criticism and everything else that's going to get into his head. So I think the best way to go here is to get back in there and get this immediate rematch ASAP. Yeah.

I mean, six months, eight months, whatever it is, get back out there. I'd also advise to, and this kind of goes back to what we were talking about. It's one thing to, it's great to have a crowd behind you, but I do think Joshua needs to do something different. I mean, he had such success against Ruiz in Saudi Arabia, you know, a completely far-flung location for it. Maybe he's got to go back to New York City or go to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, somewhere, and do something a little bit.

Go ahead. I'm glad you touched on this. I mean, look, looking back, we all, we're out of 2020 vision, but Joshua came out really relaxed, more relaxed than he normally does. He's slowing down. He was really playing to the crowd. He was stopping and giving high fives to people and smiling. It looked like he was stopping for pictures.

This is really, really comfortable, Anthony Joshua. And I'm used to the smiling, you know, charismatic guy. But this was a little bit too confident, overconfident, I think. I think give him another chance. And out of that atmosphere, like you said, instead of 70,000, do it, 17,000. and let him take care of business. But I think he was, he played the showman a little bit too much coming out into that arena. By the way, where do you now put Usik on your pound for pound list?

I mean, he's got to be top three after this win. Being undisputed cruiserweight champion, beating Tony Bellew. Canello, I think, is the class of it. But when you look and you and I think the same way on this, the strength of the resume, outside of Canello, not too many guys have, in fact, I would argue maybe Spence has it. But I mean, he's got a great resume. So I think you've got to put him in the top three. You have to put him top top five. I was going to say four because, you know, I mean, what? You got Canelo, Crawford, Spence, and you have to look at Usik. But Usik and Spence are there, man.

I mean, this was a career-changing pound-for-pound performance by Usik. And I think everyone, hands down, has to agree with that. No question. Sergio, good stuff, man. We will talk on DeZone this week. Check out our show Jabs. You can see that twice a week. week over on the zone. Thanks for doing this, bud. You got it, man. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliver Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a hear, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild. I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.