Eddie Hearn, the promoter of former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, believes that many other fighters would have refused to fight Oleksandr Usyk if he had been his ward when he held the WBA, WBO and IBF titles.
"Normal people wouldn't fight Usyk in Anthony Joshua's place. We had all the belts, right? We had everything. We had carte blanche, Joshua was the biggest star in the boxing world. But A.J. said: "He's my mandatory challenger. I'm going to fight him."
People told me, 'I wouldn't take that fight if I were you. Who is Oleksandr Usyk?" I replied that he's a mandatory challenger and we have to face him. Joshua fought him twice and lost twice. Clearly enough in the first fight and in a close second fight in which Usyk gave away a great finish," Hearn said in an interview with YouTube channel The Stomping Ground.
