Former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has been training alongside Oleksandr Usyk as he steps up preparations for his return to the ring, footage shared on social media confirmed on Friday.
A post from Boxing Kingdom showed Joshua in camp with the unbeaten heavyweight champion, an image given their shared history. The sighting is consistent with recent reporting from RTFight that Joshua has resumed work with Iegor Golub, a trainer from Usyk’s setup, in Spain, and that Usyk himself has been present offering technical advice.
Joshua confirmed the arrangement in comments reported by RTFight: “London’s a bit distracting for me, so I was invited to train by Team Usyk. I’ve been in Spain, we had great sessions there.”
He added: “So I joined them and got an understanding of how someone reaches that level, it’s phenomenal. It was a great and very tough experience.”
Why the Usyk connection matters now
Joshua’s decision to embed himself in Usyk’s environment is pointed. Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) beat Joshua twice, first by unanimous decision in September 2021 to claim the unified heavyweight titles, then by split decision in August 2022. Both fights exposed specific weaknesses in Joshua’s approach.
Technical analysis from The Fight Site described Usyk as controlling initiative from the opening bell in their first fight, setting the rhythm, forcing Joshua to react, and dictating terms with feints, lead-hand activity and relentless pace. Joshua’s preferred counter-punching game was disrupted because Usyk stayed busy, varied his looks, and made him think instead of settle.
After the rematch, Joshua was candid about what went wrong. “I tried a different style,” he told ESPN. “In the last fight I wanted to compete as a boxer, but it wasn’t good enough, and tonight wasn’t good enough.” He also admitted he had fought “two fights, one with Usyk and one with my emotions, and both got the better of me.”
Against the division’s smartest operators, size and patience are not enough. Joshua needs sharper tools for tempo control, distance management and composure under sustained pressure.
This camp goes beyond routine training. Joshua is not just borrowing a coach. He is placing himself inside the habits and daily structure of a fighter whose style gave him problems he could not solve across 24 rounds.
“It was a great and very tough experience.”
According to RTFight, Joshua has clarified that he is not sparring Usyk directly. The value appears to come instead from structure: conditioning, discipline, ring craft, and the atmosphere of a camp built around elite technical detail.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn framed the setup in practical terms. RTFight reported Hearn describing the environment as “a very disciplined, authoritarian one” where the instruction is simple: “Shut up and do your job.” For a fighter whose biggest post-Usyk criticism has been inconsistency between styles, teams and game plans, that kind of structure could matter as much as any single technical adjustment.
The Fury question
Joshua’s comeback camp will inevitably sharpen focus on Tyson Fury, the fight that British boxing has wanted for years and never gotten.
The latest reporting is messy. Yahoo Sports reported that boxing journalist Gareth A. Davies said both fighters had signed an agreement for a bout expected to be on Netflix, though timing and details were unclear.
But Hearn pushed back hard. “There is absolutely nothing signed with Anthony Joshua to fight Tyson Fury next,” he said, according to Boxing News 24/7. “There is nothing agreed.”
That contradiction means the Fury fight is still best treated as a target, not a done deal. The broader consensus across reporting is that Joshua is expected to return first in a tune-up bout, with any Fury date only realistic later if schedules and recoveries align.
What Usyk’s camp can and cannot solve
There is tactical overlap between Usyk and Fury. Both are elite heavyweight technicians who win by making opponents uncomfortable rather than overwhelming them with power. Usyk does it with southpaw angles, lead-hand rhythm and relentless work rate. Fury does it with reach, switching stances, jab variation, clinch craft and awkward timing.
If Joshua absorbs the right lessons from Usyk’s camp, he could become more disciplined about not surrendering the opening phase of a fight, which is where he came unstuck twice. A fighter who struggled to impose himself on Usyk should not expect to succeed against Fury unless he improves at cutting the ring, winning the lead-hand battle and maintaining composure when his first attack fails.
But Fury is a different puzzle. He is heavier, longer, more reliant on physical awkwardness and operates from a different stance mix. Preparation inside Usyk’s system will help Joshua with discipline and response habits. It will not automatically solve the specific problems Fury poses over 12 rounds.
A comeback is taking clearer shape. Is Fury V Joshua the now or future target or is time running out for both men, in my opinion it must happen this year, and especially any Fury date, remains far less certain.