British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) suffered two consecutive defeats from Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) and lost his WBA Super, IBF and WBO championship titles. Thus, he lost his dream fight – for the title of absolute world champion against compatriot Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), the owner of the WBC belt.
Joshua
reacted on the protracted negotiations between Usyk and Fury: “Look at the situation with the battle for the title of the absolute. I am sincerely sorry for Usyk. He looks like he’s ready to get to work. But boxing is a business. We live in it. This happens when it comes to title fights. I know that sooner or later they will agree. But you always feel much calmer when everything is ready. After all, when you have a date, you can safely start preparing.”
Fury’s promoter previously announced that they have a date – April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London (England). But it is possible that the rival of the British champion will be someone else – the parties still cannot agree on the distribution of the prize fund, because the Ukrainian team insists on dividing the money equally.
There are even rumors that we might see Fury-Wilder 4 instead of the Usyk fight.