Deontay Wilder Believes Anthony Joshua ‘Wasn’t Himself’ In Rematch Against Oleksandr Usyk

Deontay Wilder believes Anthony Joshua wasn’t himself when he fought Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch on Saturday.

Joshua lost by decision for the second-straight time to Usyk and now is out of the heavyweight title picture for the time being. After the loss, he also had a bit of a meltdown as he took the mic and spoke for two minutes about Usyk and himself.

According to Wilder, that meltdown and the way Joshua fought wasn’t him. But, he says that is what happens when boxers get hand-fed everything until they finally have to fight someone good.

“With Joshua you can tell he wasn’t himself,” Wilder told ESNews. “He wasn’t his usual self, being motivated, or feeling fully secured within himself. You can just easily tell … you just had that feeling. It boils down to that. We all know that Joshua has stamina problems and different things like that. We always feel he’s too big for certain things that he do, like oxygen in his muscles and stuff like that. Like I’ve always said, they’ve given him everything. When you give a man everything and then it’s time to really bite down on the wire. How far can you go?”

Although Deontay Wilder believes Anthony Joshua was given everything, it still is a fight that many fans would want to see. Wilder and Joshua were linked to a fight in 2018 but it never came to fruition.

As for Wilder, he is set to return to the ring when he takes on Finland’s Robert Helenius on October 15 in a highly-anticipated bout. It serves as Wilder’s first fight since the back-to-back losses to Tyson Fury and him thinking about retiring but instead will be returning to the ring.

If Wilder wins, many want to see the Andy Ruiz Jr. fight if he wins as well, but perhaps the Joshua bout will happen sometime in the near future.

Do you agree with Deontay Wilder’s comments?