Usyk and Joshua try to copy a famous scene from the Rocky movies and people are not fooled by it. At all. To say the least.
Anthony Joshua for some strange reason seems to be spending a huge amount of time in the Ukraine lately.
Training with heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk — who has previously defeated him twice.
But he is spending a lot of time there in general.
Earlier the above scene depicts the two on the beach sprinting in a race against one another like Rocky Balboa and his, also training partner and former opponent, Apollo Creed once did in the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Rocky’ movies series.
But that was fiction of course. A good movie though in its day.
Here’s why the above is coming in for some heat on social media from the boxing world:
- Scene was staged for a promo reel
- Labeled explicitly as a “recreation” for training camp marketing
- Usyk and Joshua were rivals not mentor-student like Apollo and Rocky
- Used to hype the “Glory in Giza” fight card on DAZN
- Modern gear and editing kills the gritty Rocky III vibe
- Can’t replace the hit song “Gonna Fly Now in some cuts
- Seen as promoter spin
- Rocky beach run meme is overused in boxing content
- Too corny
- Joshua not the personality of Apollo Creed
Alas, it was just a bit of marketing and maybe some what of an effort and an attempt at least.
It got people talking earlier at least.
Usyk returns to the ring later this month to box a kickboxer who’s just had a single professional boxing match in his life.
Some new talk has come lately around a possible Usyk vs Benavidez fight in the future as well.
