Anthony Joshua has arrived in Saudi Arabia, ahead of Tyson Fury’s fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
The Watford star will be ringside at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh on May 18 as Fury and Usyk compete to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
Joshua has arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning
Joshua will be watching on with intrigue as the fight also holds massive implications for him.
Saudi boxing chief, His Excellency Turki Alalshik, recently confirmed to ESPN that he is eyeing up the long-awaited all-British showdown between Fury and Joshua for March next year.
Fury and Usyk have a two-way rematch clause signed into their contracts with the second fight pencilled in for October 12/13.
After which, Joshua is expected to enter the fray.
Whether their fight will be for the heavyweight titles or not rests on Fury emerging victorious from the four-belt shootout.
It seems unlikely Joshua will be given the opportunity to fight Usyk for a third time after convincingly losing both of their bouts back in September 2021 and August 2022.
So despite picking Usyk to win, Joshua will surely be secretly rooting for Fury.
While Joshua waits patiently for his outing against Fury next year he is choosing to remain active.
Fury vs Usyk is set for Saturday night
The former unified heavyweight champion, recently told talkSPORT that he will be back out on either September 20 or 21 at Wembley Stadium and has four names on the shortlist to be his next opponent.
Discussing his next opponent, he told talkSPORT’s Jon Jackson last month: “On June 1 in Saudi Arabia they’ve got the 5 vs 5 card.
“You’ve got Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois, and you’ve got Zhilei Zhang vs Deontay Wilder.
“So providing one of those looks good – the one who looks the best, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh said to me, ‘I want you to fight [him].’
“What he says is, ‘In the future I want people to look back at your record and say that you took on the best.’
“I said, ‘Now you’re speaking my language.’
“So out of that pool, I believe that’s who I’m gonna be fighting, one of those.
“We’re on the same page and he’s on the same page as the fans as well.
“He’s trying to deliver what the fans want, I know they want that big fight with Tyson Fury and he’s working on it.
“But Fury’s got his obligations with Oleksandr Usyk so I’ve gotta make sure I stay focused and disciplined, keep steamrolling through opponents so I can get closer and closer to having the opportunity of me vs Tyson Fury.”
Full video here:
