By Charles Brun: Edde Hearn says that the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight will likely be signed this week for September in London. Hearn states he’s getting the Joshua – Usyk clash finalized this week.
The Joshua-Usyk fight getting done this week is good news, but only because of the decision to stage the match in London.
Up until recently, Joshua’s fans were looking at the prospects of needing to pay out the nose to purchase tickets to travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to see him fight Tyson Fury on August 14th.
According to Hearn, there was no way that a fight of that magnitude could occur in the UK in front of Joshua & Fury’s loyal fans.
Now that Joshua is taking a lesser fight against Usyk, who isn’t popular, has no power, and has little chance of beating him, the fight will occur in the UK. Joshua’s fans will get to see him live in the UK, albeit against a less popular foe in Usyk.
“I can tell you that this week, that this is a more confident footing than the Joshua – Fury negotiations because I know Alex Krassyuk very well, and I know Usyk very well,” Hearn said to the DAZN Boxing Show.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) has decided not to vacate his WBO title to swerve mandatory Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs).
It’s a risky fight for Joshua and one that won’t attract nearly as much interest as a trilogy against Andy Ruiz Jr or a rematch with Dillian Whyte.
But Joshua wants to hold onto all his titles long enough to meet the winner of next month’s fight between WBC champion Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder for the undisputed championship later this year.
If it were up to Charles Brun, the WBO title would be binned straight away, and he’d be giving the fans a more compelling fight against Ruiz Jr, Whyte, Filip Hrgovic, or Luis Ortiz.
“This week, that fight will be signed. We’re looking at September in London,” said Hearn. “Just finalizing the details. It’s a great fight, a dangerous fight. It’s not the one we necessarily wanted or expected.
“But it’s a high-level heavyweight fight. It’s a unified heavyweight champion against the undisputed cruiserweight champion, and on we go with that fight – it’s a big event.”
I think Hearn is going a bit overboard here by referring to the Joshua vs. Usyk fight as a “High-level” affair or calling it a “dangerous fight.”
Let’s be real. Usyk can’t punch at heavyweight, and he’s looked atrocious in his two fights since moving up from cruiserweight in 2019 against Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora.
Usyk is the mandatory challenger with the World Boxing Organization because he previously held the WBO cruiserweight belt. The WBO has a rule in which champions can use their status to become the mandatory challenger if they decide to move up a weight class.
For Usyk, it was a no-brainer for him to take advantage of this rule to go up to heavyweight to get a massive cash-out payday against Joshua. The money Usyk can make from the Joshua fight alone will be enough for him to retire on and live like a King in Ukraine for the rest of his life.