{"id":549776,"date":"2026-04-25T09:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/549776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T09:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:26:07","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-played-major-role-in-deciding-anthony-joshuas-next-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/549776\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk played major role in deciding Anthony Joshua’s next fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn has revealed key discussions with Oleksandr Usyk ahead of Anthony Joshua<\/a>\u2018s return to the ring.<\/p>\n

Joshua was last seen exchanging verbal blows with Tyson Fury earlier this month, shortly after \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019 ended his 16-month layoff with a points victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of granting his rival\u2019s request for a face-off, though, Joshua decided to remain seated<\/a> and criticise the 37-year-old\u2019s lacklustre performance.<\/p>\n

Since then, it has been revealed that \u2018AJ\u2019 and his promoter, Matchroom boss Hearn, have been offered a two-fight deal by Turki Alalshikh, culminating in a long-awaited clash with Fury later this year.<\/p>\n

The all-British showdown has been slated for November, though Joshua is expected to return to action in July as part of this two-fight agreement.<\/p>\n

While having not fought since his sixth-round finish over Jake Paul in December, the 36-year-old has also been recovering \u2013 both physically and mentally \u2013 from the tragic car crash in which he was involved that same month.<\/p>\n

The incident in Nigeria took the lives of his two close friends, while \u2018AJ\u2019 was believed to have sustained several injuries.<\/p>\n

But he has, of course, returned to training camp with unified heavyweight champion Usyk, who has played a key role in not only Joshua\u2019s rehabilitation but also the discussions for his next fight.<\/p>\n

Speaking with IFL TV<\/a>, promoter Hearn gave an insight into the Ukrainian\u2019s insistence on a comeback fight, before the Londoner finally collides with Fury.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of this has come through Oleksandr Usyk; he was part of these conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the conversations were: Absolutely he\u2019s [Joshua\u2019s] having a comeback fight. He could\u2019ve probably made more money to go straight into the [Fury] fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut [Team Joshua\u2019s] like: \u2018No way. We need to be 100% when we fight Tyson Fury\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would seem that the full extent of Joshua\u2019s recovery process has not been documented, hence why his team is particularly keen for him to face a less established name than Fury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn has revealed key discussions with Oleksandr Usyk ahead of Anthony Joshua\u2018s return to the ring. Joshua…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-549776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}