By Barry Holbrook: Anthony Joshua states that he feels sympathy for what unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is going through with his negotiations with WBC champ Tyson Fury for an undisputed championship match on April 29th.
It’s a massive headache for Usyk to deal with this, and he’ll likely have nothing to show for it when/if the negotiations go up in smoke after many months.
The former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua recently attempted to put a fight together with Fury, who has seemingly become increasingly challenging to negotiate with in the last year, and he failed to get a deal done.
Despite the huge money that was available for both fighters, Fury torpedoed the negotiations by setting an unrealistic deadline, which there was no way that Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn could meet.
As a result, Fury moved on and fought journeyman Derek Chisora on December 3rd. What was further surprising about the whole thing is Fury didn’t give Chisora a similar deadline, and he was given many weeks to negotiate a deal with him, which suggests to some that ‘The Gypsy King’ never wanted the fight with Joshua.
Do we see the same thing with Fury foiling the negotiations with Usyk to avoid a potential loss? Some boxing fans think that’s what Fury is doing now.
Joshua feels sorry for Usyk
“Look at the situation with the undisputed fight. I feel sorry for Usyk because he seems to be ready to get cracking. But that’s the business we’re in when you get to these title fights,” said Anthony Joshua to the DAZN Boxing Show about his sympathy for IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk having to deal with the waiting involved with trying to put a fight together with WBC champ Tyson Fury for April 29th.
“I know it’s probably going to happen soon, but it’s nice to have dates set. So you can work towards. As humans, it’s nice to have a date set. ‘What’s next?'” said Joshua. “Imagine if I was fighting for the undisputed. It would be August, and I’d still be waiting for a date now, which isn’t good for a fighter. They need momentum, so I’m happy to get it.
“I have to take Jermaine Franklin more serious than Usyk. Not that I’m comparing. It’s that I know better because of what I went through and how I trained. I now know better. I have to put more pressure on myself to perform better. So I feel like as long as I’m fighting, I’m always going to have this level of self-expectation to improve as a fighter,” said Joshua.
