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Boxing

13th Oct 2021

Frank Warren wants Joshua to step aside and allow Fury vs Usyk

Callum Boyle

Warren believes that Joshua should step aside and fight the winner of Fury and Usyk

Boxing promoter Frank Warren believes that Anthony Joshua should step aside and allow Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk to fight and decide who is the undisputed heavyweight champion, with Joshua going on to fight the winner.

Both Fury and Usyk currently hold all available heavyweight belts in the division between the pair after their extraordinary wins over Deontay Wilder and Joshua respectively.

Despite holding all belts, it doesn’t seem likely that there are any plans to fight soon, with Fury expected to fight Dillian Whyte who was a mandatory challenger to the winner of his fight with Wilder, whilst Usyk will fight Joshua in 2022 after the defeated Englishman activated a rematch clause.

But Warren, who is Fury’s UK-based promoter, told Sky Sports that he would like to see the two undefeated fighters battle it out to see who is the undisputed champion.

He said: “He shouldn’t be going through with it. It’s his choice.

“If he knocks it on the head, it opens the door for us to do the unification [Fury vs Usyk].

“Let AJ get a warm-up fight. He needs a winning mentality before he goes into [a rematch with Usyk]. Maybe he fights the winner [of Fury vs Usyk] which is still a big fight.”

Warren also feels that the ‘Gypsy King’ would have to take a different approach to beat Usyk but that the Ukrainian will beat Joshua again in the rematch.

“They have similar skills” Warren said.

“Tyson wouldn’t fight him like AJ did. Tyson would use his physical attributes, his size and reach, and would win the fight.

“I think Usyk will beat him again. If there had been another 20 seconds, Usyk would have stopped AJ.

“He wobbled him early and nearly took him out. Next time around he will fancy knocking AJ over.

“The only way AJ can beat him is to do what Wilder did – to impose himself.

“I can’t see AJ winning that rematch.”

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