Anthony Joshua’s sparring partner reveals what it was like in the Brit’s camp before Usyk rematch

Anthony Joshua‘s sparring partner has revealed how his training camp conditions were like a prison, as he tried to prepare tactically for the rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.

Isaac Okoh spent four months with Joshua in Loughborough, before spending a month in Saudi Arabia ahead of the fight on August 20, which the Ukrainian won on a split verdict after 12 rounds.

Amateur light-heavyweight Okoh only won his first domestic title in April, before being selected to be one of Joshua’s sparring partners.

Okoh said that Joshua’s focus was solely on the fight, so much so that he put himself in tough conditions, prioritising preparations over almost every other aspect of his life.

‘I know that when we were in Loughborough, he was in the campus of the uni, going to the gym and he’d go back to his room, eat and that’s it. It was like living a prison kind of lifestyle in the camp,’ Okoh told Sky Sports.

‘It was the same in Jeddah. He’d go to the gym, go back to the hotel, eat, sleep and just the same thing. Doing that for a long time at such a high intensity and training for such a big event, it’s hard.

‘To stay focused for that long, it must be hard.’

Joshua was unable to escape the fight promotion on arrival in Saudi Arabia, something which might have added to the pressure he felt before Saturday’s fight.

‘[He was] on the billboards, in the shopping mall, literally everywhere everyone was talking about the fight,’ Okoh said.

‘He carried British boxing for a long time. Been the face of British boxing for a long time.

‘Especially coming off the back of the first defeat [to Usyk], the pressure he must have been under must have been immense. Obviously, he’s got to try and keep it all together because he’s so much in the public eye that he has to remain calm and be the role model.

‘He’s genuinely a great person and he is genuinely a role model. But obviously when you’re in high-intensity fights like that, it’s hard. It’s a big weight on your shoulders to carry.

‘Massive fights, stadium fights, stupid amount of numbers on the audience, big press conferences, he’s just always in the public eye. So it must be hard.

‘It’s going to take its toll at some point.’

Whatever the reason, it all boiled over after the defeat, which saw Joshua make a troubling outburst in the immediate aftermath, and throwing two championship rings on the floor, something which he later apologised for.

Speaking about Joshua’s post-fight actions, Okoh reflected: ‘He just had an outburst of emotions. Obviously it’s all built up, it’s come out, everyone’s human.

‘It happens but it’s a shame he acted how he did. It probably was wrong. But everyone’s human, it’s got to come out at some point.

‘As I said, he had this weight on his shoulders for so long, it must have been a bottled-up amount of emotion and it’s just come out.

‘I don’t think it will define his career. It’ll be the talk for a little while. He’ll be able to come back.’

Joshua’s team, including new coach Robert Garcia and trainer Angel Fernandez, were working in the ring to prepare the 32-year-old for what to expect opposite Usyk – including plans to knock the Ukrainian out.

‘There were a few of us sparring partners but every single one he was just trying to get you out of there,’ Okoh explained. ‘That was the gameplan for the fight so that’s what they’re going to do in sparring. When I was sparring, Angel and Robert Garcia were just telling him forward, forward, forward.

‘It was very intense spars. They were using me for my speed and my movement so I was doing say like the first two rounds, the first three rounds, then the last three rounds. It was [to] start fast, finish fast.

‘Very intense. Like definitely trying to get you out of there. But that was the kind of thing with the whole camp, getting in the mindset of he needs to go in there and bully Usyk and take him out. So why would you not do that in the sparring, if you’re going to do that in the fight?’

As well as speed, he said Joshua’s training focused around punishing the body, which led Okoh to say: ‘You get caught every now and then!’

The teenager said he was pleased with the learning curve, as he returns to his amateur career, and being assessed with the GB squad.

Okoh said: ‘I’m only 19 so picking up as much experience as I can, not saying no to any opportunities that come my way.

‘The first few weeks was quite rough, getting used to the way he boxes, trying to find my rhythm in the spars. But you get used to it.

‘It was chaos, it was crazy, I was just there soaking it all up.

‘A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity kind of thing.’