OLEKSANDR USYK is still prepared to help Anthony Joshua in training for his next fight.
Usyk beat AJ twice on points in the space of 11 months but is now ready to teach his old rival some new tricks.
His promoter Alexander Krassyuk told Sky Sports: “He said if needed he might come and give him a couple of [pieces of] advice.”
Joshua, 32, was involved in a bizarre post-fight rant after his recent rematch loss to Usyk, 35, in Saudi Arabia last month.
The unbeaten Ukrainian failed in his approach to calm AJ down – but remains open to sharing the ring again in sparring.
Usyk said: “I wanted to talk to him, I said, ‘Ease up, man, let’s just calm down. When I have time I could come to see you in the UK, come to your gym and we could spar together and stuff.'”
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The pound-for-pound star has now returned to his war-torn home and was welcomed by friends and family.
And having spent months away from them in training, Usyk has ruled himself out of fighting until next year.
That shelved hopes of the heavyweight divison’s first four-belt unification bout, with WBC champion Tyson Fury, 34.
So the unpredictable Fury turned his attention to Joshua and offered him a 60/40 purse split to fight on December 3 in Cardiff.
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And AJ’s management company recently claimed they have accepted the terms, with official paperwork due to be sent.
Fury’s promoter Frank Warren told talkSPORT: “The contracts are on their way. This fight isn’t on until it’s signed.
“I am not going to go into great detail as the last time around people made statements and it all fell apart.
“Everybody wants it to happen, there are not any obstacles in the way, so hopefully, very quickly we can get it over the line, but until it is signed it is not on.
“There are a lot of facets to making it over the line, lawyers and broadcasters are involved.
“There has been an offer that could be refused but they have accepted a great offer.
“The basis of the deal, 90 per cent of what counts in the deal it is OK, and the other 10 per cent we have to sort out.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk