Anthony Joshua working with Oleksandr Usyk before Jake Paul bout

Anthony Joshua will not be honing his skills under the pugilistic purview of Ben Davison before his next fight and will in fact be working with a former two-time opponent of his. AJ will be training with the camp of Oleksandr Usyk prior to this curious Jake Paul bout set to close out 2025. On December 19th in Miami, the former unified heavyweight champion of the world will take on Paul in an eight-round affair to be broadcast on Netflix.

During the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua presser, addressing his recent connection to the legendary Ukrainian, with an excerpt posted to X account @ChampRDS, Joshua said,

“I was invited to train with Team Usyk. We’ve been doing some good training. He’s one of the best in the world. Getting an insight to how someone who’s achieved so much has been phenomenal. It’s been a great experience and it’s very challenging.”

While the UK combatant mentioned that he did not get direct sparring work with Usyk. But the overall work ethic and methodology of the Spain-based camp have paid dividends for Joshua all the same. Joshua would lose a pair of heavyweight title clashes to Usyk, with the decision defeats coming in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Anthony Joshua touts a certain way that Jake Paul is better than Tyson Fury

Anthony Joshua couldn’t help but get in a dig at long-time rival Tyson Fury ahead of this Jake Paul fight. Fury is on the table in a rumored fashion once again, as a Joshua vs. Fury fight has been touched on in reports to take place in 2026 at some point.

In the press build leading into this clash with ‘The Problem Child’, Joshua stated [via Bloody Elbow],

“I take it seriously. He’s a conqueror, his mentality is solid. It’s better than Tyson Fury’s – he’s sitting here. So I take him seriously and give him the respect he deserves mentally in preparation.”