ANTHONY JOSHUA is determined to become world heavyweight champion again within the next 16 months.
The 33-year-old is set to face Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena on Saturday night.
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It will be his first fight since last year’s defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua lost his unified titles to the Ukrainian in September 2021 and failed to win them back 11 months later.
But he is eager to bounce back at the weekend in Saturday’s heavyweight bout with Franklin.
When reflecting on his previous reign as champion, Joshua said: “The thing is, I do and I did want respect from people in the industry that I admire, ex-legends in the game and when you’re not a champion any more you feel like that goes away.
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“So, that was definitely something I was yearning for, is the respect from ex-champions and when I’d lost it, it was like ‘f*** I’ve lost that invincibility’, but it’s all good.
“We move forward. I’m not really doing it for that purpose any more because I’m not in that position, but the desire?
“One is definitely to become champion, which I think is possible within the next 16 months.
“I think we’ve got to see what happens this year with the belts. Let them be competed for and then potentially let them go up in the air and then we’ll see where the belts land.
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“Then just stay consistent, stay focused on improving for these next 12 to 16 months while I’m in title contention.”
Although Joshua remains determined to reach the summit of boxing again, he has also hinted that he will consider retiring if and when he gets his hands on the belts.
He added: “This run is like, what can it go on for? Three, four years?
“If I was going to do another run after this, you’re talking about fighting into my forties and I truly believe that boxing’s a young man’s sport.
“It takes a real solid character like Bernard Hopkins, (George) Foreman, Klitschko, Povetkin to go on into their forties and stuff, but I think this is a run I want to make successful and then, you know, hopefully go out on top.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
