21 December 2023 , 21:15
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Otto Wallin has explained the benefit of using a sports psychologist throughout his career as he joked about helping Anthony Joshua with his mindset.
Wallin looks to ruin Joshua's plans of fighting Deontay Wilder in March when he fights the Brit at the 'Day of Reckoning' event in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night. The Swede is unbeaten in six fights as the only loss of his career came against Tyson Fury four years ago in a fight that could have been stopped when Fury suffered a big cut above his eye.
Sports psychology has been a key part of Wallin's career for the past decade as he explained: "I have been working with my psychologist since 2012 - a guy from my hometown so I am very happy with that. I saw Joshua say I act like a psychologist because I talked about his mindset and he joked that I could be his psychologist, maybe I could, who knows.
Who wins on Saturday - Anthony Joshua or Otto Wallin? Let us know your prediction in the comments section below
“I learned so much and developed mentally, I was a huge underdog against Fury and left it all in the ring and it will be the same here. I think it gives me so much mentally and physically. He taught me to go out of my comfort zone and fight to win, not fight to lose. That’s AJ’s problem, he is fighting to not lose, rather than to put on a good performance and win.
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"He is not doing everything he can to win. Me and my training team have been together for 10 years so they know what I can and can’t do, what I need, what I need to work on. We have a really good bond and we trust each other. They can tell me straight up and never be scared of getting dumped or fired.”
Wallin surprised fans by switching up his stance from southpaw to orthodox for the open workouts on Wednesday. Joshua has previously admitted that southpaw fighters are a pain for him to deal with given his two losses to unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk and Wallin takes confidence from this.
“I understand why British fans are worried, I would be worried too. I was surprised I got the fight because it’s a short-notice fight, he has changed trainers again and I am a southpaw. I am coming off a good win so it’s coming at a good time for me and I really believe I can win the fight. have good momentum and I don’t know if he does," he added.