BOXING fans are fuming that Anthony Joshua may never take on Tyson Fury after being beaten by Oleksandr Usyk.
The Brit, 31, was taught a lesson by Usyk, 34, who came close to a knock-out before winning via unanimous decision.
It is Joshua’s first defeat on home soil and now he faces the tough task of trying to win his belts back.
His promoter Eddie Hearn says AJ has little choice but to trigger the re-match clause with Usyk – otherwise Joshua may never win back his belts.
A failure to recapture his world titles would put significant doubt on Joshua being able to agree a fight with Fury.
Also, Fury faces his own challenge to hold onto his own WBC title against Deontay Wilder next month.
Should Fury win he could seek to unify the heavyweight divison next.
And that could mean a fight with Usyk, not Joshua, if the Ukrainian wins once again in a rematch.
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But AJ was adamant he would fight Fury even if the world title belts were not on the line.
In his post-fight press conference Joshua said: “The road to undisputed and all that stuff, it’s good.
“As I said, I’ll fight Tyson Fury, Wilder, without the belts.
“The belts are fun. It’s great, it’s legacy. But with or without the belts, I’ll fight whoever. The road to undisputed is a nice title to have and a nice title to chase.
“That’s the main thing – is you’ve got two competitive fighters in the ring from UK soil, that just want to go toe-to-toe.”
Many boxing fans feel Joshua vs Fury – which was agreed earlier this year – will now never be realised.
One wrote on Twitter: “Joshua is not relevant to Fury anymore. Fury said he had two maybe three fights left. Wilder then Usyk. Joshua is a fraud who gets found out against anybody half decent.”
Another added: “Bang goes the Fury vs Joshua fight. The one mega-money fight that the whole of the boxing world wanted to see now down the pan!”
A third said: “Can’t see Joshua v Fury happening now. No real value for Fury to fight against someone who lost to a cruiserweight. Think Joshua underestimated Usyk and came unstuck.”
Jamie Carragher also weighed in, saying: “Is that Fury v Joshua off the cards now?”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
