Frank Warren Reveals Anthony Joshua’s ‘Greedy’ Demand

When Anthony Joshua lost his heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk, it shattered several plans related to hosting an undisputed title fight in the division. However, Usyk re-initiated the undisputed talks and was seemingly moving towards bagging the fight against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Having beaten Deontay Wilder in October 2021, Fury was also out of a potential opponent. Although interim champion Dillian Whyte was always on his radar, Fury flirted with the idea of facing Oleksandr Usyk. Both the heavyweight champions came face-to-face a few times, sending several fans into a frenzy.

That said, Anthony Joshua was also offered a $20 million step-aside deal to let Usyk and Fury compete in an undisputed fight. However, the current scenario cites a different picture in which Fury will match up against Dillian Whyte. Meanwhile, Frank Warren sat down with Talk Sport and detailed why Fury didn’t agree to matchup against Usyk immediately.

He said, “As far as Tyson was concerned, it dragged on.”

“When Joshua asked for an extra $5million, he said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and that was it. He said, ‘I’m not interested, he’s too greedy,’ and that was enough. He’s a champion – Tyson’s not beholden to Anthony Joshua. Him and Usyk wanted to get it on, both of them wanted to get it on.”

“But you had two people in the middle – one was suing the WBC and the other one was asking for more and more money.”

The heavyweight division was in an utter mess before Frank Warren finalized the WBC title fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte. Queensberry Promotions put on a massive $41 million purse bid to secure the bout, leaving limited options on the table for Anthony Joshua.

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Anthony Joshua needs to reclaim his titles

Per the current situation, Joshua shall rematch Usyk somewhere in early or mid-2022. Unless he regains his belts, AJ won’t be in a situation to make his own calls. As the step aside factors seem to have died down, Joshua should start preparing for Usyk. The first fight saw him suffer a lopsided beat down in London.

To be precise, it was a bigger loss than the one which came against Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019. Usyk is an undefeated two-weight champion, and one of the most technically affluent punchers. Thus, AJ will come across a very tough opponent who already has an upper hand over him. This clearly complicates Anthony Joshua’s holdings in the current title race.

Do you think Anthony Joshua can bounce back from doom?

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