Anthony Joshua weighs in 18¾ pounds heavier than Oleksandr Usyk
Rumors that Oleksandr Usyk put on considerable weight and Anthony Josh lost some proved to be exaggerations.
Usyk, the former cruiserweight champion, weighed in at 221¼ pounds a day ahead of his title challenge Saturday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. That’s exactly four more than he weighed when he outpointed Derek Chisora last October.
Joshua, who holds three of the four major titles, came in at 240 pounds. That’s three quarters of a pound less than he weighed for his knockout of Kubrat Pulev in December.
Thus, the 6-foot-6 Joshua outweighed the 6-3 Usyk by a 18¾ pounds.
For Usyk, the extra poundage does represent a steady, albeit slow climb in weight since he moved up from the 200-pound division. He has weighed in at 215, 217¼ and now 221¼ for his three heavyweight fights, which has given him some needed heft in the land of the behemoths.
The Ukrainian is trying to become only the third former cruiserweight titleholder to become a heavyweight champion, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye.
Holyfield, who fought at cruiserweight when the limit was 190, weighed 208 pounds for his first heavyweight title fight, a third-round knockout of 246-pound Buster Douglas in 1990 that gave him the undisputed championship.
Haye, a 200-pound cruiserweight, weighed 217 when he defeated 316-pound Nikolai Valuev by a majority decision to win the WBA heavyweight belt in 2009.
This isn’t Joshua’s biggest weight advantage. Most recently, the IBF, WBA and WBO titleholder outweighed Alexander Povetkin by 23¼ pounds in September 2018.
Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) was outweighed by Chazz Witherspoon and Chisora by 27 and 38¼ pounds, respectively, in his first two fights as a heavyweight. He is closest in size to Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs).
