Anthony Joshua has placed his chips on who he would ideally like to see win in the upcoming undisputed heavyweight world title clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on February 17.
"I’m team Usyk," Joshua told TNT Sports this week.
The two teams behind Fury and Usyk engaged in talks throughout much of 2023 and, though a deal could ultimately not get finalized for April — which would take place in London — they will trade blows in Saudi Arabia early in 2024.
Fury has also been linked to Joshua, and there is no love lost between the pair due to past comments to one another.
"Fury’s said a lot of bad things about me," Joshua said. "I’m never going to ride with someone that disrespects me. That would make me a lunatic, and I’m pretty level-headed. So I’m going to go with the person who shows me respect."
Joshua, meanwhile, returns to the ring December 23 for his own fight against long-time contender Otto Wallin and, if he is successful, will most likely proceed to face Deontay Wilder, who faces Joseph Parker on the same card dubbed 'The Day of Reckoning.'
The two-time former unified champion Joshua was asked if he would like to face the winner between Usyk and Fury. Joshua responded positively but did side cautiously. There would only be a narrow window of opportunity to make that prospect a reality.
"For the entertainment factor, yeah. It’s getting drawn out a bit though. They’ll (Usyk & Fury) have two fights. The first one and then the rematch. Maybe that’ll be Fury’s only two fights next year.
"Hopefully, he can sneak one in with me at the end of the year, but that draws it out for another twelve months before I see Fury. But we got Wilder anyway, or we got Parker. We got other big fights."
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