- Anthony Joshua confirmed to be in Gandia, Spain, embedded in Oleksandr Usyk's camp ahead of the WBC defence against Rico Verhoeven on May 23 in Giza.
- Joshua lost to Usyk twice, in 2021 and 2022 — now he's helping the Ukrainian sharpen against a kickboxing world champion making his proper boxing debut.
- Eddie Hearn calls the Usyk effect on Joshua "unbelievable." For AJ this is fight-IQ schooling at the highest level. For Usyk, it's the perfect heavyweight body to spar.
Right Then — Pinch Yourself
Right then. If you'd told me eighteen months ago that Anthony Joshua would be sat in a training camp in Gandia, Valencia, helping Oleksandr Usyk get ready for a kickboxer at the Pyramids, I'd have asked what you'd been smoking. And yet here we are. AJ is in there. Pads, sparring rounds, ring-IQ chats, the lot. The man who Usyk schooled twice is now in the unified champion's corner — and Eddie Hearn says the impact on Joshua is unbelievable.
Make no mistake, this is the most fascinating training story in heavyweight boxing this year. Forget the polite "two former rivals working together" framing. This is the man Joshua couldn't beat handing him the playbook in real time, and Usyk benefitting from one of the few proper heavyweight bodies on the planet that can simulate what Verhoeven might bring to Giza on May 23.
What's In It for Joshua
Joshua's career was, let's be fair about it, drifting. The retirement debate was loud, the comeback plan kept changing, and he's been linked with everything from a July tune-up in Riyadh to the rumoured Wembley showdown with Tyson Fury. What he hasn't had since the early Rob McCracken days is genuine elite-level boxing schooling. Sat in front of Usyk, getting eaten up on tactical questions, getting shown where the angle was on those Saudi nights — that's the masterclass AJ never went and got.
Hearn has been talking about it for months — calling the change in Joshua "unbelievable." That's promoter language, but I think there's a kernel of truth. Joshua at his best was a physical specimen with serious power and decent fundamentals. Joshua at his worst was a fighter who didn't trust his own brain in the ring. If Usyk can give him the second half — the calm, the reading, the angle work — then the version of AJ that comes back next is dangerous in a way none of the previous comeback Joshuas have been.
What's In It for Usyk
Don't think this is charity. Usyk doesn't do charity in camp. He's getting Joshua because Joshua, at six-foot-six and around eighteen stone, is one of the closest body simulations on Earth to Rico Verhoeven. Verhoeven is six-foot-five, comes in around the same weight, throws kickboxing-style straight one-twos with that long frame, and is making his first proper boxing fight against the unified heavyweight world champion. Usyk needs reps with a long, heavy man who can punch. Joshua is exactly that.
The Usyk camp has also moved between Gandia and a Ukrainian base for this run, and Sergei Lapin and Anatoliy Lomachenko Sr have built a Verhoeven-specific gameplan. We've seen this Usyk masterclass before — Tyson Fury both times, Joshua both times. The man treats every fight like a chess game, and Verhoeven's defensive holes have been studied to death.
The Verhoeven Question — Don't Sleep, But Don't Panic
Let's not beat around the bush about Rico Verhoeven. He's a brilliant kickboxer — 66-10, the best heavyweight kickboxer of his generation, ten Glory titles, the lot. As a boxer? He's got one professional bout under his belt from way back in 2014. Usyk is a generational boxing talent, an Olympic gold medallist, and undisputed across two weight classes. The boxing-only ruleset is the ultimate equaliser, and not in Verhoeven's favour.
That said, Verhoeven's size is real. His fitness is freakish. And he hits proper hard — kickboxers don't tend to throw soft. The reason Joshua being in camp matters is precisely because Usyk needs to know what it feels like to take a clean right hand from a man that size when he's tired in round eight. He doesn't get that from his usual sparring rotation. Joshua does that for him.
Glory in Giza — May 23, Pyramids, WBC Heavyweight
The fight goes Saturday May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza on DAZN. Usyk's WBC heavyweight title is on the line, and they've added the Ring magazine belt for good measure. Tickets are near sellout. Sheeraz v Begic and Catterall on the undercard. The whole thing is properly stacked — and the headline is the kind of left-field heavyweight fight that the Saudi era of boxing has made suddenly normal.
Usyk has been training in Gandia and Kyiv. Joshua's been in for several weeks. The smart line on this fight is Usyk by stoppage somewhere in rounds eight to ten — the kickboxer holds his own early, Usyk reads him, Usyk takes him out late. But you have to factor in: Joshua's involvement makes the late-rounds Usyk version even sharper than usual.
Luke's Take — Brilliant Story, Smart Move
This is one of the most levels-bending stories in heavyweight boxing right now. Two men who fought each other in front of 90,000 at Spurs and Saudi, now collaborating in a quiet camp in Spain. It tells you Joshua is past the ego. It tells you Usyk is past the war. And it tells you both men are smart enough to know what the other one offers them at this stage of their careers.
For Joshua, this is the best thing he's done since signing with Hearn. For Usyk, it's just another reason Verhoeven has very, very little chance on May 23. And for the rest of us, it's a brilliant little subplot to the heavyweight division before Wardley v Dubois reshuffles everything on Saturday at Co-op Live.