Nigerian-born world boxing heavyweight champion, Anthony Olaseni Oluwafemi Joshua has been hit with a massive threat by his next mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine, who insists he will not step aside for Tyson Fury, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although Joshua has already reached a two-fight agreement with Fury, for an all-British world boxing unification blockbuster in the heavies’ class, Usyk stressed that hwe will call for his mandatory shot at the title early next year.
That could put spanners in the wheels of ‘The Battle Of Britain,’ which many fight fans and purists are already talking about, but Usk has given his sternest warning yet that he will not wait for Joshua to fight Fury before demanding his own shot.
Usyk reinforced his status as the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight title by outpointing Zambian-born Brit, Derek Chisora on Saturday night and he now intends to fight for the global belt held by ‘AJ.’
The Ukrainian affirmed that he will not give way, even if Joshua, who also holds the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) titles. wins his next defence against Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria on December 12.
In the wake of his unanimous points decision win over Chisora in their heavyweight fight, Usyk has now stated that he believes in his ability to become just the third boxer to add a heavyweight title to the cruiserweight belts that he accumulated.
Usyk declared: “I am the mandatory for Joshua so he has two options. One; to fight me. Two; to vacate and to go and fight Fury. Either he fights me or relinquishes. I am waiting. I am ready. Not just world champion, the undisputed world champion [is my aim].”
