Top heavyweight contender Joe Joyce is certainly leaning in the direction of Oleksandr Usyk defeating Anthony Joshua in their upcoming rematch.

Last September, Usyk outboxed Joshua over twelve rounds to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Usyk and Joshua are heading into a rematch on August 20 in Saudi Arabia.

Joyce is the WBO's mandatory challenger. He will eventually land a direct shot at the Usyk-Joshua winner.

He doesn't see the addition of trainer Robert Garcia to Joshua's camp as being a gamechanger in the second encounter.

“Robert Garcia, I think it’s a good choice for him. He’s more of an offensive trainer and I think it should be a good fit but he’s only got a short time to work on stuff with him leading up to the rematch with Usyk,” Joyce told IFL TV.

“Usyk’s already beaten him before, so he’ll have an advantage and know what to do to do it again and he’s not going to be like [Andy] Ruiz, like eat loads of Snickers bars and fricking put on weight.”

Joyce is not worried about the Usyk's mind being clouded with the ongoing war between his home country of Ukraine and neighboring Russia.

Usyk returned to Ukraine to assist his countrymen, but eventually left to begin training camp for the Joshua rematch.

“He’s gone to war, apparently. Word on the street, he might have been training the whole time. So, he’ll be in a good place coming in,” Joyce said.

“He’ll know exactly what to do to beat Joshua again. It’s up to Joshua to make the fight how the first fight should have been and correct his mistakes. I don’t know, maybe Usyk can maybe knock Joshua out. Let’s see how the fight goes. It’s an exciting fight to watch, and I’m excited to watch it.”