Anthony Joshua is looking to face big-punching rival Deontay Wilder next and rules out boxing anyone else in the interim; In a message to the other top heavyweights Joshua declares: "Whoever's good enough to take me to the trenches, let's go. That's what I'm looking for!"
Friday 25 August 2023 11:43, UK
Anthony Joshua believes the negotiations for him to fight Deontay Wilder next are going in a "positive" direction.
The Briton, a former unified heavyweight champion, ruled out taking an interim bout before facing Wilder. He still wants to have that fight in December, although the American's team are targeting January.
"Things are positive," Joshua told Sky Sports News. He ruled out the possibility of fighting anyone else first, explaining: "The timeframe doesn't really give an opportunity for that.
"In reality we're trying to schedule a fight for December so unfortunately no. That's the time scale we're looking forward to really. In reality I'm going to focus on the Wilder fight for now."
He sees a potential "stumbling block" in trying to combine the blockbuster heavyweight event with a Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed championship showdown.
"Fury's got to get past [Francis] Ngannou. Usyk's got to get past [Daniel] Dubois. Good luck to both of them. Good luck to every party involved and we can sit down and then rejig things around," he revealed.
"The goal is to have Usyk and Fury compete for the undisputed heavyweight championship, myself and Deontay Wilder, two big punchers, great fighters, been to the top of the mountain, slug it out and may the best man win.
"It'll be a great event potentially. Wait to see what happens and then finalise the devil in the detail."
Joshua vs Wilder would match two of the biggest punchers in boxing against one another. But Joshua also emphasises the elements of his craft that set him apart. He is not solely a big hitter.
"I'm a bit smarter than that. That's my approach to boxing. My approach to boxing is IQ and intelligence," he said.
Boxing Wilder won't necessarily be "an all-out slugfest".
"At the end of the day it's a fight and if it goes down that route, if someone's good enough to bring that out of you, you've got to know that you're man enough to stand up and fight for your territory," he said.
"I'm saying I'm better than that and I should be able to beat any opponent, just by using one hand - I'm that good. That's my mindset.
"Whoever's good enough to bring that side out of me and take me to the trenches, let's go. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for an opponent that's good enough to take me to the trenches."
Joshua intends to stay true to the change of style that's taken him from the all-out aggressor of his early years to the more considered boxer we see today.
He has though noted the criticisms of his two most recent performances, where many observers thought he should have stopped Jermaine Franklin, rather than go the distance, and that he ought to have knocked out Robert Helenius sooner.
"Everyone's got an opinion," he said. "But also, there's only one man in the ring. And there's one man in the arena in my view and that's me and I'm focused on my process. I'm following a process that I trust."
He added, with some understatement: "I'm two-time heavyweight champion, two-time unified champion so I'm sure I have a small understanding of what it takes and what I should be doing in that ring."
His mission to become a three-time heavyweight world champion continues and Deontay Wilder, he hopes, is the next stop along the way.
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