Welterweight contender Conor Benn was ringside last Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Anthony Joshua was outboxed over twelve rounds by Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk, a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, walked away with the WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO heavyweight titles.

A rematch between Joshua and Usyk is being targeted for the early months of 2022.

Benn believes Joshua had the wrong strategy and issued the wrong tactics during the contest.

“I don’t know what happened but I just think the strategy and tactics were wrong. He gave a magician room to perform tricks. Usyk is an unbelievable fighter, he is up as a pound-for-pound best but, for me, if there was ever a night for AJ to come in heavy then that fight was the case," Benn said to IFL TV.

“He should have bullied him, manhandled him, let him know that he was in the ring with a big heavyweight. He should have set the tone straight away and let three and four-punch combinations go, let him know he was in with a big boy. But the fact is you cannot hit what you cannot see and I told people, if it went past eight rounds, it was anyone’s to win.

“The only way to beat Usyk is to stick it on him, 1 million percent, I don’t believe anybody is outboxing Usyk. It’s hard to believe that those were the tactics going in because AJ has the power, the speed, the skillset, the boxing brain to go in there and beat him up, manhandle him, punch-him-up with threes and fours.

“If it was me I would have used a weight advantage, Chisora drew the blueprint for how you beat Usyk, I felt he won that fight. I know Chisora is robust, he will sit and lean on someone - and maybe AJ wants to be more of a boxer-puncher - but AJ, in his younger career, was a better finisher, he had the killer instinct. It will be interesting to see what happens in the rematch, what happens with the weight, his mindset, the ring-walk. For the Andy Ruiz rematch AJ did what he had to do to win, it wasn’t necessarily the most entertaining fight, but he did what he had to do and hopefully he can do it again.”