BRIT WEIGHS IN MORE THAN STONE HEAVIER THAN USYK

ANTHONY JOSHUA hit the scales for his world heavyweight championship defence against Oleksandr Usyk at the same 17st 2lb he weighed when he beat Kubrat Pulev nine months ago. That gives Britain’s holder of the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles an advantage of almost a stone-and-a-half over his undefeated challenger. At 15st 11lb, Ukraine’s former undisputed cruiserweight champion will be at his heaviest ever in this, his third venture up to heavyweight. Joshua’s weight suggests he intends to exploit his size tonight in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. That resonates with AJ’s promise to deliver a ‘lot of excitement and hopefully a knockout’ to the 68,000 crowd ‘for coming out to see me in British boxing’s first big stadium fight since the pandemic’. A victory should bring on next spring his seemingly forever awaited mega-fight against Tyson Fury. Two Fury fights could be worth £100million to each. Tonight Joshua and Usyk have reportedly settled for £15m and £8m respectively.