Oleksandr Usyk urges Anthony Joshua to move away from ‘freeloaders’ in response to post-fight rant

Jonathan Gorrie2 September 2022

Oleksandr Usyk says he does not hold a grudge against Anthony Joshua following his post-fight outburst in Saudi Arabia.

The Ukrainian retained his WBA, IFB, WBO and IBO heavyweights in a split decision victory last month while also picking up Tyson Fury’s vacated Ring belt.

After an improved performance against Usyk, Joshua tossed two of his belts out of the ring and looked to storm backstage before returning to the ring to launch into expletive-laden outburst.

The Brit was criticised for his behaviour, with many believing it was the champion’s moment to celebrate.

Still, Usyk insists he holds no ill-feeling towards the 32-year-old and even hinted at a trilogy fight should he not meet Fury in what would be a hugely anticipated undisputed bout.

"I don’t hold a grudge against him,” he said.

“He was upset. I’d be upset if I lost twice. Joshua has potential to grow, he needs to get some people away from him because he has a lot of freeloaders. Joshua is a handsome man, well done.

“I don’t want to talk about the competence of the judges, but when I watched the rematch with Anthony Joshua, I can say that four, well, a maximum of five rounds can be given to Joshua.

“If Fury floats away, then maybe we will agree on a third fight with Joshua.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in