Anthony Joshua will want to pursue his dream of undisputed heavyweight championship glory, even if it means fighting Oleksandr Usyk a third time.
First Joshua is focused on trying to defeat Daniel Dubois to claim the IBF belt and become a three-time heavyweight world champion himself.
Joshua clashes with Dubois on September 21 at Wembley Stadium in London, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
Then attention will turn to Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, who rematch in Riyadh on December 21 after the Ukrainian beat Britain’s Fury to go undisputed in May.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said: “All he’s got on his mind is Dubois, obviously, winning the world heavyweight title but I know that if he wins September 21, the only fight he will want is the winner of Usyk-Fury.
“He’s always wanted to fight Fury, he’ll definitely do it, but when the decision is read out on December 21 he will want the winner of that fight because he’s only one fight away from being undisputed himself.”
Joshua lost his unified world titles to Usyk in 2021 and could not better that result in a rematch the following year.
But his training team has been evolving in the years since his first loss to Usyk and he has hit good a vein of form with new coach Ben Davison.
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“When he fully gets the gameplan and when it’s fully drilled I think he’s unbeatable. And that’s how we feel at the moment,” Hearn said.
It gives the promoter some confidence that Joshua could beat Dubois and then potentially overcome Usyk in the final instalment of a trilogy.
“With all due respect to Dubois, who is a dangerous guy, he makes mistakes and he is not a difficult fighter to work out. What he does have – he’s very strong and he can punch and he’s physically a problem. But he makes a lot of mistakes,” Hearn said.
“I think the momentum from an AJ win in style would take him into a massive 2025 which funnily enough could be the defining moment of his career.”
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But Joshua is also likely to fight his great rival Tyson Fury, regardless of what happens in his own rematch with Usyk.
“I believe he will fight Tyson Fury, win or lose against Usyk [in December]. But he’ll also want to fight Usyk for undisputed, that’s always been his dream,” Hearn said.
“But to fight Fury for undisputed, going in as a belt-holder against the unified champion that would be immense.
“If Usyk was to win, I think he [AJ] will want to fight Usyk but I think he’d also be under a lot of pressure to fight Fury pending what happens in that fight.”
Watch Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium live on Sky Sports Box Office on September 21.
Source : Sky Sports
