Anthony Joshua takes swipe at Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk with "shambles" jibe
Anthony Joshua has joked the top of the heavyweight division is a "shambles" after Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk's undisputed title talks broke down last week.
The two-time former unified world champion will begin his journey back to the title picture on Saturday night when he headlines at the O2 Arena against Jermaine Franklin, and is keen for a summer showdown with Fury. The British duo have had a long-standing rivalry, with multiple meetings falling flat at the eleventh hour.
In the final press conference for his bout with Franklin today the Watford-born superstar admitted his frustrations at watching the divisions top fighters struggling to make a fight deal. And he took a thinly-veiled shot at his two rivals today, noting that it is chaotic atop the heavyweight ladder.
"Looking at the champions, it's just a shambles," he explained. "When you're trying to compete mandatories, negotiations, honestly I just can't believe not fights have been made at the championship level. But I'm just so happy that I can get back to work and get on with my job. I'm looking forward to this assignment and I can't wait, honestly, I'm really looking forward to it."
Joshua has promised a demolition job over Franklin, who appears to have dropped considerable weight after a razor-close decision loss to Dillian Whyte back in November. The American argues that he won that bout, and has been rewarded by promoter Eddie Hearn with another massive fight as the away corner for the highly-anticipated Joshua comeback.
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Anthony Joshua will make his comeback on Saturday night (Philip Sharkey/TGS Photo/REX/Shutterstock)What's your prediction for Anthony Joshua vs Jermaine Franklin? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"In terms of entertaining, as you hear, you don't play boxing," Joshua added. "At the same time, people from years back like the empires, they just loved people coming together and fighting. So they'll be entertained regardless and I think we'll see blood. I'm just really looking forward to getting in there, I'm so happy I'm fighting again.
"What's going to happen? I'm going to come out and do this and do that? Like [Franklin] said, I'm going to do it by any means necessary. We're just here to do a job. As I said, I respect my opponent, may the best man win and one thing he's said is that he's started eating right for this camp and all that.
"I think he's dealing with someone that's been living right from the get-go. I've been putting in work from the day I started in this business, so it's going to be a good fight because he's up against a real one, for sure."
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