Today could prove to be a crucial 24 hours in the short-term future for former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The Daily Star report that ‘AJ’ will sit down with his 258 management team and promoter Eddie Hearn to decide what is the next move for the 32-year-old.
The question appears simple: Will Joshua fight Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch, from their 2021 title fight, or step aside to allow the Ukrainian a chance to become undisputed heavyweight champion by facing Tyson Fury.
Rumours and reports continue to circle around Joshua and the apparent £15 million pounds he has been offered as compensation so Usyk and Fury can face one another
Yesterday the two-time champion released a video saying, “I’m hearing ‘AJ accepts £15 million to step aside’. I ain’t signed no contract, I ain’t seen no contract so as it stands don’t listen to the bullshit until it comes from
me.”
However, in an interview with Boxing Social’s Rob Tebbutt, Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk said yesterday, “We’ve been in talks for Fury-Usyk fight since November and sometime we were close to making the fight then everything fell down then we came back again and now there’s no big
certainty about it.
We are in negotiations 100%, we are close to finding the solution but it’s all about negotiations. We talk, we discuss, we try to find a solution but at this stage I can’t confirm Usyk is fighting Fury next.”
Krassyuk would go on to say that conversations begun in December for Joshua to step aside if the money was right.
Speaking to Sky Sports yesterday, Hearn said: “A number of discussions and proposals” would be discussed on Tuesday.
There remains one other obstacle to climb over for an undisputed title fight to take place and that is Dillian Whyte. The WBC Interim champion is involved in a legal dispute with the governing body as he looks to gain an improvement on the 20% split offered by the WBC to face Fury in a mandatory title fight.
Purse bids for the bout continue to be pushed back with the next deadline set for tomorrow (Wednesday).