Former undisputed world champion Lennox Lewis has continued to stress that Anthony Joshua must make a name for himself in the United States - and other parts of the world.
In April, Joshua secured the first defining win of his pro career when he stopped former division ruler Wladimir Klitschko in eleven rounds to unify the IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight titles. Their showdown brought in a record crowd of 90,000 fans to Wembley in London.
Joshua, a 2012 Olympic gold medal winner, has reached rock star status in the UK, but he's still very much unknown among most boxing fans in the United States - a country which many fighters regard as the Mecca of boxing.
Joshua has an exclusive television deal in the United States with Showtime, but many believe that it's finally time for him to make that trip across the ocean.
Next up is a likely rematch with Klitschko in the fall. The second fight also has a high probability of taking place at a stadium in the UK.
In 2018, there will be a lot of pressure on Joshua to fight in America - a move that Lewis believes is necessary to be considered the "world" heavyweight champion of boxing.
“For me, I believe that if you’re a world champion, you should fight around the world – it builds you as a fighter and a person. You can have a good following in Britain, but then you go to America, and no one knows you. So you have to build a following there too. It’s important to fight in other places. It’s a historic thing. Muhammad Ali fought in Africa, so my aim was always to fight in Africa too, which I did," Lewis said to The Sun.
“Now, anywhere and everywhere I go, I still get fans coming up to me. In the beginning, when I started boxing over in America, I used to get booed because I was the Brit coming over to their country. But when I won over there, they said ‘fine, he’s an OK Brit! He boxes well’. They accepted me as a good fighter.”