Oleksandr Usyk To Be Trained By Vasiliy Lomachenko’s Father For Anthony Joshua Fight

Oleksandr Usyk will have a familiar face training him for the Anthony Joshua fight.

Usyk is set to challenge Joshua for his heavyweight titles in a fight expected to take place September 25 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

And for what will be the biggest fight of his career, Usyk will be trained by Anatoly Lomachenko — the father of pound-for-pound star Vasiliy.

That’s according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who promotes Lomachenko.

“Let me caution you something, because even though I don’t promote him, I consider him a really good friend and that’s Oleksandr Usyk, who the reason I know him so well is he is the best friend of Vasiliy Lomachenko,” Arum told Sky Sports.

“Egis Klimas, who is the manager of both, I talk with him and he has talked with the father of Lomachenko, who he calls ‘Papa Lomachenko’ who was the trainer of all these Ukrainian Olympians and he’s agreed to properly train Usyk for this fight.”

The senior Lomachenko has trained Usyk and multiple other Ukrainian Olympians in the past, but has only trained his son Vasiliy as far as pro fights were concerned.

However, he will be making an exception for Usyk who is family.

“I’m telling you, ‘Don’t think that Joshua is in a cake walk. He has a really tough fight with Usyk, who is a terrific boxer.’ His father wouldn’t train anyone else, but he will train Usyk, because Usyk is like family,” Arum added.

It will certainly be interesting to see what impact this has on Usyk’s eventual performance.