Anthony Joshua sends “good luck” message to Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk for their April fight

By Boxing News - 02/09/2023 - Comments

By Sam Volz: Anthony Joshua sent a “good luck” message to heavyweight champions Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury today ahead of their potential April 29th undisputed fight.

Instead of being bitter about being eliminated from the possibility of fighting for the undisputed championship in his two losses to Usyk, Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) is courteous, wishing him and Fury luck.

It’s still unknown whether Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) and Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) will fight because their negotiations are still stalled at the moment over the site for the match. Eddie Hearn thinks there’s a chance the fight won’t happen.

Hearn suspects Fury vs. Usyk won’t happen

“There is a chance that Fury doesn’t fight Usyk. I think he will, but if he doesn’t, there’s a lot more money out there for him to fight Anthony Joshua. So maybe we make that fight in the summer. I have no idea,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing UK.

“The Wilder fight is the same.  Those are fights that should happen in 2023. I see AJ fighting for another three years. He wants to fight everybody. Sooner rather than later round be nice.”

That would be ideal if Joshua & Hearn skipped the useless fight against journeyman Dillian Whyte and faced Fury or Wilder next in the summer. Fighting Whyte won’t help Joshua because he’s so severely over the hill at this stage of his career that he food for any of the top 15 contenders.

We saw Whyte getting dominated by Jermaine Franklin last November and being given a controversial decision while fighting at home in London.

“Good luck to both of them. I wish them well. It’s something that I dreamed of and worked hard for. Didn’t get the opportunity, but since they’re blessed for that opportunity, I wish them both well,” said Joshua during the press conference on Thursday, wishing good luck to WBC heavyweight champion Fury and IBF, WBA & WBO champ Usyk for their still unsigned undisputed fight.

AJ not putting pressure on Derrick James

“I don’t want to put that pressure on Derrick James,” Joshua said to iFL TV when asked what makes him believe that his new coach Derrick James is the right guy to turn his career around.

“I know what’s good for me. He was open to work with me, but I don’t want to put that pressure on Derrick. I just got to do what I got to do. It’s spit and sawdust. It’s tough. He’s a taskmaster, but no pressure on Derrick.  Whatever happens in my career is down to me, good and bad.

“I don’t want to put pressure on a coach and say, ‘Everything that happens now moving forward is because of Derrick James.’ It’s all on me. A trainer does make a difference. A lot of people think a trainer doesn’t make a difference. I believe it does.

“I think he’ll help me, but it’s up to me to do the work. Whether I work with [Robert] Garcia or another coach, it’s quite easy for me to make adaptions. The transition is simple, and in the sparring, you can identify certain things,” said Joshua.