Anthony Joshua is finally set to move on with his heavyweight title reign.
The unified heavyweight titlist will next face unbeaten WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk, with their long-discussed matchup due to take place September 25 and likely at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. It’s not the fight that was targeted by Joshua at the start of 2021 but the next one he gladly accepts in light of events that otherwise consumed far too much of his time.
An official announcement is expected to come in the near future. The date was confirmed by Eddie Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Sport and Joshua’s career-long promoter although other details are still being sorted ahead of a formal unveiling of the WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight championship.
“I don’t want to say two weeks because you guys are bored of me saying that,” Hearn said during a recent Instagram Live session. “But (an announcement is coming) soon. September 25 is the date.”
The ‘two weeks’ quip was a reference to the months-long negotiations between Joshua (24-1, 22KOs) and countryman Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21KOs). The pair of British heavyweights were believed to be destined for an undisputed heavyweight championship showdown August 14 in Saudi Arabia, though Fury still had to contend with an ongoing arbitration case determining the merits of a contractually obligated third fight with Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41KOs).
Fury and his team insisted for months that such a fight with Wilder—whom he fought to a draw in December 2018 and stopped inside of seven rounds in their rematch last February 22—was dead in the water and that the arbitration case would likely be ruled in his favor if not dismissed outright. The exact opposite transpired, with retired judge Daniel Weinstein ruling that Fury owed Wilder a third fight by no later than September 15.
Fury and Wilder will meet July 24 atop a Pay-Per-View event jointly presented by ESPN and Fox Sports live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The development forced Joshua to look back in the direction of Usyk (18-0, 13KOs), who has waited more than a year for his mandatory title shot. The 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and unbeaten former undisputed cruiserweight champion from Ukraine was previously offered an interim title fight versus England’s Joe Joyce as a consolation prize to wait out a potential Fury-Joshua superfight but enforced his mandatory position once plans for the latter fell apart.
"Unfortunately, [Fury’s] team let the whole boxing world down," Joshua told Sky Sports of the situation. "I will still be here, still ready to put on a show.”
Usyk made six successful defenses of at least one cruiserweight title, with the bulk of his championship reign taking place in the home country of his opponents. A November 2018 seventh-round technical knockout of Tony Bellew at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England marked the final cruiserweight fight for Usyk who has since won two straight at heavyweight including a twelve-round unanimous decision over Derek Chisora last Halloween.
The upcoming fight will mark the second straight mandatory title defense for Joshua. The previous occasion came last December when Joshua—a 2012 Olympic Gold medalist for Great Britain and two-time unified heavyweight champion—disposed of Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev inside of nine rounds in front of a limited, socially distanced crowd at Wembley’s SSE Arena in London. The IBF mandatory title fight was Joshua’s first in the United Kingdom since his September 2018 knockout win over Alexander Povetkin.
Since then has come his first career defeat—a seventh-round knockout loss to Andy Ruiz in June 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York City—and a landslide points win over Ruiz in their December 2019 rematch in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
A special feeling will come with Joshua’s bout versus Usyk, as it will be his first since the pandemic where venues will return to allowing 100% capacity. Joshua has long served as the world’s leading box-office attraction, at one point packing well more than 300,000 fans over the span of four consecutive title defenses, including a record-breaking 90,000 at Wembley Stadium for his off-the-canvas eleventh-round knockout of former lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko in April 2019.
It is believed that an all-UK showdown with Fury—should both win their upcoming bouts—will serve as the biggest fight in British boxing history and one of the biggest of all time. It remains on Joshua’s hit list once he is able to take care of present-day business.
“[I could face Fury at the] end of the year,” Joshua still believes. “Let me get past Usyk first. But with or without Usyk in my life, I will fight Fury. Usyk isn't the be-all and end-all. Usyk doesn't determine the Fury fight.
"The Fury fight has to happen. It's a big fight, bigger than boxing, bigger than the belts. It will happen after the Usyk fight, after I defend my belts. The fight will be bigger, better than what it would have been."
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox