{"id":74395,"date":"2025-08-28T08:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=74395"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:21:14","slug":"ex-champion-buddy-mcgirt-predicts-joshua-victory-over-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/28\/ex-champion-buddy-mcgirt-predicts-joshua-victory-over-usyk\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Champion Buddy McGirt Predicts Joshua Victory Over Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Veteran boxing trainer and former world champion Buddy McGirt has expressed confidence that Anthony Joshua can defeat Oleksandr Usyk in a potential third fight, despite the Ukrainian\u2019s two previous victories over the British heavyweight.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Boxing News, McGirt acknowledged Usyk\u2019s dominance but singled out Joshua as the one fighter capable of beating the undisputed heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to say I\u2019m crazy, but there\u2019s a guy that can beat him, and he\u2019s already fought this guy twice\u2026 I\u2019m not talking about Tyson Fury,\u201d McGirt said. When pressed, he confirmed, \u201cAnthony Joshua can beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Usyk boasts an impressive record, including title wins over Marco Huck, success in the World Boxing Super Series, and back-to-back victories over Joshua and Tyson Fury to claim the undisputed heavyweight crown.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk first defeated Joshua in September 2021 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, capturing the WBA, WBO, and IBF titles, and retained them in their August 2022 rematch in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>McGirt\u2019s prediction highlights Joshua\u2019s continued relevance in the heavyweight division.<\/p>\n<p>While a third fight with Usyk remains uncertain as the Ukrainian explores other opponents, Joshua still commands attention as one of boxing\u2019s biggest draws.<\/p>\n<p>The heavyweight landscape remains competitive, with rising talents like Moses Itauma also gaining recognition. Tyson Fury has tipped Itauma as a potential future threat.<\/p>\n<p>For Joshua to secure a trilogy clash with Usyk, he would likely need to defeat top-tier contenders and reassert himself as a legitimate challenger for the undisputed titles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata &nbsp; Veteran boxing trainer and former world champion Buddy McGirt has expressed confidence that Anthony Joshua can defeat Oleksandr Usyk in a potential third fight, despite the Ukrainian\u2019s two previous victories over the British heavyweight. In an interview with Boxing News, McGirt acknowledged Usyk\u2019s dominance but singled out Joshua as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":74396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74397,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74395\/revisions\/74397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}