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Anthony Joshua urged to step aside and let Tyson Fury fight Oleksandr Usyk in unification fight

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The former world champion is set to face Usyk again in a rematch, having lost his belts to the Ukrainian last month

Frank Warren has urged Anthony Joshua to step aside and let Tyson Fury take on Oleksandr Usyk in a unification fight.

Fury and Usyk hold all of the belts in the heavyweight division after the former defended his WBC crown against Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas, while the Ukrainian claimed the WBO, IBF and WBA titles off Joshua last month.

Fury looks set to face mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte in his next bout, although he could face Usyk if a unification fight can be organised within 30 days.

That looks unlikely though after Joshua triggered his rematch clause, with Eddie Hearn confirming the former champion is set to face Usyk again around March next year.

Fury’s promoter Warren though has urged Joshua to look elsewhere, and let his fighter have the chance of claiming all of the heavyweight belts.

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“He shouldn’t be going through with it,” Warren told Sky Sports. “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.”

Joshua though doesn’t look likely to step aside, having insisted he’s ready to face Usyk once again and try and win back his titles.

“I’m ready to get back to training. It was a good 12-rounder, so I’ll be in a good place when I get back into training to pick up where we left off,” Joshua said.

“Usyk is a lot lighter than me so he’s got a good pace. But he still gets hit a lot and in the rematch we’ll just learn how to hit him more and be more concussive with our punch selection.”

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Warren though has warned Joshua he only sees another defeat for him, and believes things would have been worse had the first fight carried on.

“I think Usyk will beat him again,” Warren added. “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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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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