ANTHONY JOSHUA has revealed he made a bid for Wladimir Klitschko’s infamous USB stick.
AJ beat the Ukrainian in one of the biggest fights of his career in 2017, coming back from a knockdown to score an 11th-round stoppage win at Wembley Stadium.
Wladimir Klitschko famously held up a USB stick detailing how he would be Anthony JoshuaCredit: Getty Images – GettyAJ beat Klitschko – and revealed he bid £5,000 for the stick, which eventually sold for £160,000Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd
Ahead of that fight – which was named Fight of the Year by Ring Magazine – Klitschko had famously held up the stick at a press conference and said it had details on exactly how he would beat the Watford-born star.
AJ has now revealed he made a £5,000 bid for the USB stick, which eventually sold for a whopping £160,000 to a mystery buyer, with all proceeds going to projects supported by the Klitschko Foundation.
Joshua, 32, has still not seen the footage filmed by his former opponent, who retired shortly after defeat.
He said: “He said ‘I have a memory stick sewn into my gown which is going to break down how I will defeat Anthony Joshua ‘ along with his prediction.
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“In 2014 I went to help him prepare for a fight and they record the training sessions. In 2017 I fought Wladimir Klitschko.
“After the fight I sent the invoice and it cleared. So I rang my guys and was like ‘Yeah I want to put a bid in for this stick I am ready lets call it £5,000’.
“That is a lot of money. But I think it sold for like £200,000 and I was a long way off the mark that it needed to take to win the auction.”
Klitschko, 46, appeared on Piers Morgan last week and revealed he was plotting a comeback to the ring before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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In an exclusive interview on TalkTV, Klitschko said: “I was thinking I should tweet Tyson Fury – ‘Last dance?’
“Since he wants to retire and we were supposed to have this rematch. I didn’t do it because my mind was now in a totally different world.”
AJ, meanwhile, is continuing his training ahead of his world title rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, which is due to take place on July 23.
However, his promoter Eddie Hearn threw some doubt on the fight taking place.
Anthony Joshua is in training for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk
Hearn explained: “There is not a problem now but if it is not announced next week then it could be put back a week or two.
“The fight is definitely happening, the 23rd is the date that everyone has agreed on and everyone is fine with. If we agree next week then everything is fine.
“The date of the fight and the time to train are not the problems, it is more about the extra obligations of TV, press conferences and promotion.
“Eight weeks out feels OK but once you get down to seven and six, it’s a problem.
“Both fighters know that if we have to do a media tour then it needs to happen in the next 10-14 days. Beyond that we will have to move it back a week or two.
“If we go July 23 then we are nine weeks away and we need to announce next week, it has to be next week.
“They will want us to do a media tour, we would have to go to the Middle East and London, maybe even New York, so we really need to announce next week.”
