Frank Warren believes Oleksandr Usyk has been over rated in the heavyweight division following his former opponent, Anthony Joshua’s, latest fight.
‘AJ’ recently returned to winning ways with a unanimous decision win over America’s Jermaine Franklin. A certain victory with many positives, but one that pundits and fans are calling ‘tentative’ and ‘gun shy.’
In Joshua’s previous two contests, he was bested by Usyk, who now sits atop the division as unified champion. He was recently in advanced talks to face Warren’s fighter, Tyson Fury, for the undisputed title.
Things fell apart, and now he’s in talks to defend his titles against the WBA’s mandatory challenger, Daniel Dubois – also part of the Warren stable.
The promoter told IFL TV that, as well as questions about Joshua’s self-belief, the Franklin fight told him about Usyk, too.
“What it did for me … It put into perspective Usyk. Now everyone’s being going crazy about Usyk and he is a marvellous, marvellous cruiserweight.
I look at the fight he had with Derek Chisora and I look at the two [Joshua] fights, and I look at this [Joshua vs Franklin] fight and it tells me a lot as well.”
Warren explained that he believes fans and pundits have gotten ‘carried away’ by the Ukrainian’s run at heavyweight.
“Well I just don’t think that Usyk is a monster that everybody says he is. I really don’t. And we’ll find that out – especially if we get this fight on with Daniel Dubois, which we’re working on.
It’ll be interesting, because he’s gonna be near a young guy, who can punch, who’s a natural big heavyweight. That’s gonna be quite an exciting fight. But I think a lot of people got carried away with those wins. I really do.”
Usyk-Dubois is being targeted for the end of summer in the UK – a win for the Ukrainian keeping some semblance of hope alive for the four-belt clash with Fury.