MIDDLE GROUND
Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk have offers to rematch in Middle East and US but Eddie Hearn wants UK fight in June
ANTHONY JOSHUA and Oleksandr Usyk have offers to rematch in the Middle East and America - but Eddie Hearn wants a UK fight.
AJ was dethroned of his unified titles in September at Tottenham's 62,000-seater stadium.
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The contracted rematch threatened to be shelved after Usyk bravely took up arms to defend Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.
But it has since been revealed the unbeaten southpaw has crossed borders to Poland in preparation to fight Joshua again.
Promoter Hearn is eyeing the heavyweight sequel in June and will bring it back to Britain, if all goes to plan.
He said: “We’ve had four or five offers from around the world.
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“It’s effectively a split fight so they’re going to want to know the offers that are coming in to stage the fight.
“We’d like to do it in the UK, but there have been a lot of big offers to stage it abroad.
"We’ve had offers from the Middle East, a couple of countries in the Middle East, America, the UK, yeah.
"So I think we have to sit down with Alex [Krassyuk] and say these are the offers we’ve had and which one do we move forward with.
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“We want the fight to happen before the end of June, so probably middle-to-late June, the latest would be the first Saturday in July, July 2.”
Joshua, 32, made his US debut in June 2019 in a shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr, 32, but won the rematch six months later in sunny Saudi Arabia.
He returned to Britain in 2020 beating Kubrat Pulev, 40, before losing his WBA, IBF and WBO titles last year.
Joshua was faced with potentially taking an interim bout when Usyk, 35, signed up to a Kyiv territorial defence battalion.
But it is claimed the two-weight world champ has since left - meaning his anticipated rematch with Joshua is nearing confirmation.
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Hearn said: “He’s excited by the news, he’s over the moon. I saw him at the UFC and he wants to fight now.
"He was getting to a stage where he had to fight, and this has really forced the issue with Usyk because we said to them that we understood the situation, but we needed to know now.
“They said they would make their decision and this is their decision, he’s going for it. AJ’s over the moon.
"He turned down a lot of money not to step aside and then he might not have got the fight without any money.
"He just wants the fight and he just wants to fight. I was at the UFC with him and he was like ‘I just want to get in there’.
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"The only fight that really gets him going is the chance to beat Usyk again.
"I spoke with Alex last night and we’ll speak again tonight. The plan now is to start working on a June fight. We’re doing it, it’s a goer.”
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