AJ Trainer Fernandez Says Joshua ‘Will Definitely Beat’ Usyk in a Third Fight

Ángel Fernández is optimistic that Anthony Joshua will bounce back from one of the toughest losses of his career.

In fact, the former London heavyweight champion’s trainer is certain that Joshua will “definitely” defeat Oleksandr Usyk if they ever get in the ring again.

Joshua is coming off a hard-fought split decision loss to Ukraine’s Usyk, the WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion, last month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Usyk won all three of Joshua’s belts in their first meeting, also on points, last September at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The consensus in the boxing world is that Joshua performed better in the rematch than he did in the first fight, though it wasn’t enough to get his hands up. Fernandez, however, was heartened by what he saw and believes the 32-year-old Joshua is only scratching the surface of his potential.

“If there is a third fight against Usyk, he will definitely beat him,” Fernandez told iFL TV. “I think he is starting to understand a lot more things… we just have to focus on ourselves. Rebuild AJ and hopefully by the end of next year, we might see Fury-AJ or God knows, we might see another Usyk fight, we might see another Andy Ruiz fight. So there are big fights for Anthony.”

Fernandez noted that the loss was especially hard to swallow given Joshua’s performance in the later rounds, particularly in the ninth round, in which Joshua seemed to have Usyk hurt or, at worst, on his back foot.

“It’s disappointing,” Fernandez said. “Yes there were some improvements. But I’ve always been hard on myself… all we wanted was to win. The general feeling is one of disappointment.”

“You have to understand that if the fight had ended in the ninth round, we would have won the fight,” Fernandez added. “So the real reality is that, in a way, yes, we were ahead.”

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, suggested a quick recovery fight for Joshua and raised the possibility of seeing his star charge step into the ring in December or January.

Fernandez, who trained Joshua alongside veteran trainer Robert Garcia for the Usyk rematch, is eager to “rebuild” Joshua.

“We have to rebuild the man,” Fernandez said. “Mentally, technically, physically, you know, he looks at the things that we have to improve as a team and do better next time. We wish we could have done better that night, but that’s easier said than done.”