Anthony Joshua is hopping mad after hearing reports of him having agreed to a £15 million step aside deal to allow heavyweight champions Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury to meet for the undisputed championship.
Joshua, 32, says the report, which came from The Telegraph, is “bulls**t” and has no truth to it. AJ’s fiery reaction to the step aside reports suggests that he’s made up his mind and will take the rematch with Usyk, and let the cards fall where they may.
If Joshua loses, his career is over with for all intents and purposes. Assuming AJ beats Usyk, he’ll still be heading towards skidrow with a match against Fury, which he’ll likely lose.
It’s unclear who the sources are from the sunglasses-wearing Bono lookalike writer from The Telegraph, but Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) says he’s not accepted a $20 million step aside deal.
Joshua says he’s given no interviews and that unless the boxing fans hear it from him, they shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Boxing fans would like Joshua to agree to step aside because they want to see WBC heavyweight champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) fight IBF, WBA, WBO champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) for all four belts. Fans don’t want to see Joshua lose again to Usyk.
They prefer Joshua to wait until the smoke clears from a Fury vs. Usyk fight before facing the winner for the undisputed.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s meeting with him and 258 management on Tuesday to discuss the options for AJ.
Hearn didn’t deny that Joshua had been offered a colossal £15M step aside offer from the Middle East for him to move out of the way so that Fury and Usyk could fight.
“I’m meeting with AJ and 258 management [on Tuesday] to go through plans for his next fight,” said Hearn to Sky Sports.
Joshua reacts to step aside report:
“You know what’s bad about all these interviews I see? I see certain interviews that quote what I said. I think to myself, ‘I haven’t done no interviews.
“Where did this person get this information from?'”
“I’m hearing people saying, ‘AJ accepts £15 million to step aside,'” Joshua continued. “I ain’t signed no contract. I ain’t seen no contract.
“So as it stands, stop listening to the bull s*** until it comes from me. I’m the man in control of my destiny. I’m the man that handles my business.
“I’m a smart individual, and I make calculated decisions every step of the way,” said Joshua. “Don’t listen to the bull s*** from other sources. If I tell you something, you know it’s true,” said Joshua.
Whether Joshua will go ahead with the Usyk fight or take a step aside remains to be seen. It’ll be laughable if Joshua ends up taking a step aside, as it’ll make his denial look silly.
The way Joshua was talking during the statement, it sounds like he’s got his mind made up that he’s going to use his rematch clause to face Usyk in April or May.
If Joshua gets beaten again, there will be a lot of boxing fans coming out of the woodwork to second guess his decision not to take a step aside.
