World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua stopped short of saying the fellow champion Tyson Fury would be the next man he goes toe-to-toe with on ‘the road to undisputed’ after his ninth-round knockout of Kubrat Pulev.
The road to undisputed
Joshua said that he is taking things one fight at a time and isn’t thinking about what has been dubbed ‘the road to undisputed’.
The two-time triple belt champion confirmed that it is his ambition to unify the heavyweight belts and said if that meant fighting Fury, then “Let it be Fury”.
Joshua dominated the fight against Bulgaria’s Pulev, who was the IBF’s mandatory challenger. He punished Pulev throughout and his opponents attempts to shrug off the damage hit a wall in the ninth round.
The Brit unleashed a furious assault on Pulev with his money punch proving to be his uppercut, which he said was an homage to Mike Tyson.
“I stuck to what I know best, looking at where I’m going to put my shots,” Joshua said at ringside. “When they are successful they are successful. It’s less talk and more action.”
Watch: Anthony Joshua reacts to KO of Kubrat Pulev
When asked after the fight, whom he would be fighting next, Joshua said that he would go up against whoever the fans want him to fight, and there was little doubt as who that was.
“I fight for the fans,” said Joshua.
“I’ll fight who they want me to fight. You should be asking them.”
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn was more explicit saying he would begin to work in earnest on making the Fury fight happen in 2021.
“There’s been a lot of talk over the years,” Hearn said. “Like Joshua says, we need less talk, more action. We’re going to be friendly and nice, we know what we have to do. From Monday, we will try to make Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury happen. It’s the biggest fight in British boxing history.”
While Joshua skirted the issue of whether he actually wants to fight Fury, the Gypsy King was quick to take to Twitter and declare his intent to fight and beat the holder of the other major belts.
“I want the fight, I want the fight next, I’ll knock him out inside three rounds,” Fury tweeted.
Watch: Fury calls out Joshua
The road to undisputed might be nearing its end with boxing fans likely to be treated to Joshua vs Fury in 2021.
