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Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) will leave Ukraine to begin preparations for his rematch against former champion Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22).
The 35-year-old southpaw has been defending his nation against the Russian invasion as part of the Ukrainian defence battalion.
Usyk took to social media to confirm he would be heading into camp for the Joshua fight.
“I decided to start preparing for a rematch with Anthony Joshua,” Usyk wrote on Instagram. “A large number of my friends support me… Thank God for everything.”
Usyk won the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles from Joshua by unanimous decision in Tottenham, England last September. Brit Joshua, 32, enacted the immediate rematch clause in his contract but the war in Ukraine that started when Russia invaded on February 24 put the fight in jeopardy.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been working hard to get the fight over the line.
“He’s excited by the news, he’s over the moon,” the Matchroom Boxing boss said. “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’. The only fight that really gets him going is the chance to beat Usyk again. I spoke with [Usyk’s promoter] Alex [Krassyuk] 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.”
The rematch could take place in the UK, US or Middle East.
“We’ve had four or five offers from around the world,” Hearn continued. “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 and say these are the offers we’ve had and which one do we move forward with.
“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.”
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