Former boxing Heavyweight Champion, Anthony Joshua has opened up on his realisation that he may not become undisputed heavyweight champion, claiming the feat is ‘not in my time frame’.
The 34-year-old is set to take on Otto Wallin on December 23 in a blockbuster night of boxing that will also see Deontay Wilder face Joseph Parker in another big heavyweight match.
Joshua comes into the bout off the back of consecutive wins against Jermaine Franklin Jr and Robert Helenius and also admitted that he would like to take on Wilder or even Francis Ngannou in 2024.
Despite that, Joshua says his chances of becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion after he lost his WBO, WBA, IBO and IBF belts to Oleksandr Usyk in 2020, is very slim as he may have to wait six years before he can pick up those belts again.
In an interview with TNT Sports, the fighter was asked by Laura Woods whether he feels he could still be a challenger for the undisputed title, but he said: ‘I used to, but it won’t happen anymore.’
When pressed on why, he explained: ‘I think it is because of the reality because what will happen is that Usyk and Fury are in a position to compete for the undisputed. And once they compete for the undisputed, the belts will get split up again.
‘And I feel will probably take me about maybe five to six years to go through and get all the belts and beat all the independent champions, and that will probably take me until I’m 40 or 41 before I do that again. So I’m just like, it’s probably not in my in time frame.’
After suffering back-to-back defeats by Usyk in August, Joshua delivered an emotional post-fight press conference, where he broke down in tears while expressing his disappointment in his performance.
Joshua said after the fight: ‘It’s really, really hard for me to say I’m proud of myself. I don’t feel anything, I’m just… I’m upset. Deep, down in my heart.’
And when asked whether he went through a period of grieving after the defeat, Joshua said: ‘Yeah you saw it after that [Usyk fight].’
‘Yeah, was that grief?’ Woods replied.
‘Yeah. Because if I weren’t in the undisputed race anymore, I wanted to be champion so that was like a massive, like, I don’t know how to explain it but something comes over you but it’s just passion.
‘Passion, a lot of emotion. Yeah, a lot of emotion. So, now I’ve got over that. It’s not part of my plan anymore. So what’s next I could aim to become champion.’
