IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is looking for a monster year in 2021.

This Saturday night at the SSE Arena at Wembley, Joshua will defend his titles against the IBF's mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev.

Should Joshua win, he will set his sights on a full division unification clash with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

One of the hurdles in the way of a full division unification - is the WBO's mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk has vowed to apply a lot of pressure to ensure his mandatory crack goes forward in his next outing - either with Joshua or in a bout for the vacant title against number two ranked Joe Joyce.

Joshua would like to avoid the scenario of having to vacate one of his titles.

He would rather submit an application for an exception, with the sanctioning body allowing a full division unification to move forward - with a likely agreement that the winner will have to face Usyk in the aftermath.

"In my heart of hearts, I don’t want to drop a belt. I’ll fight Usyk first if I have to. But I think the governing body should overrule a mandatory if they have a fight for an undisputed champion, which they could," Joshua told Chris Mannix.

"If they were keen on this unification fight [the WBO] would say to Usyk ‘right, we have this undisputed title fight coming up which overrules a mandatory challenge’. What I mean is that I’ve worked hard to put together fights towards an undisputed heavyweight champion over the last few years, except this year which has obviously been a bit up and down.

"But if I can get past Pulev, hopefully me and Fury can finally get it on in 2021, if the governing bodies are willing to override the mandatory positions in order to get one undisputed heavyweight champion of the world."