Oleksandr Usyk has already twice fought and beaten Anthony Joshua and has now spoken out about the claims that he could face the British former world heavyweight champion in the ring for a third time.
Having cleared out the cruiserweight division, Usyk had two fights up at heavyweight before then stepping into the ring with ‘AJ’ to challenge for his IBF, WBA and WBO world titles.
Usyk was hugely impressive across the first 12 rounds, barely took any punishment and ran out a points winner to lift the titles out in Saudi Arabia in one of the first big fights in the kingdom.
The rematch came in 2022 at Tottenham Hotspur’s Stadium in London which saw Joshua leave his long-time coach Rob McCracken and work with Robert Garcia.
Though Joshua fared better, he still failed to win back his titles and again lost on points. Joshua infamously threw the belts out of the ring following the final bell, frustrated at not being able to get close to Usyk and at having lost the titles he worked so hard to win.
Since then, Usyk has had one more fight – a knockout win against Daniel Dubois, and Joshua has rebuilt with three straight wins of his own against lesser opponents.
He has also now bedded in with his current coach Ben Davison after a couple of fights with Derrick James and last time out destroyed Francis Ngganou in the second round.
Speaking to Boxing King Media, Usyk was asked if a third fight would be any different against Joshua.
“I don’t, now because with boxing, Ngannou, Wallin, they’re good boxers, but not top-level boxers. I don’t know, Anthony is great man, great boxer, he’s an Olympic champion but I don’t know what’s good and bad for him.
“Last fight, it’s great, but wake up, because its Olympic champion versus man who have two fights in boxing. It’s different guys, people were like wow. Tyson Fury should have done the same, yes, but I don’t know why Tyson Fury didn’t.
“Anthony Joshua did a good job in the ring, but listen, people shut up. This is boxing. UFC is a great sport, but it’s a different sport. I don’t want to interfere with people who do UFC, but UFC and boxing is very different. boxing is like a Rolls Royce.”
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