Anthony Joshua has admitted his 'road to undisputed' may have come to an end amid the drama atop the heavyweight division with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
The two-time unified heavyweight champion attempted on multiple occasions to figure out an undisputed fight with first Deontay Wilder and then Tyson Fury during his time with the belts. However, neither of those fights ever came to fruition, and after watching the Fury and Usyk bout fall apart, he has admitted that he may never get a chance at holding all four belts.
Joshua will first need to make a successful comeback on Saturday night before he can go for any of the titles, with bookies making him a heavy favourite against Jermaine Franklin. And he is hopeful that if he gets through his latest test at the O2 Arena that he's in line for a shot at Fury this summer.
“I’m done with all that," he said when asked about eventually winning all of the heavyweight belts. "Undisputed‘s a headache. I’ve been chasing that for a long time. That’s a whole headache. I’ll just get my hands on one of the titles, but why do people not regard the IBO heavyweight title as a legitimate heavyweight championship belt?
"Let's say for example someone came up and won the IBO title, they would be classed as the heavyweight champion of the world, right? It's the champion that makes the belt, right? People keep saying that [Usyk] has three belts, and [Fury] has one, but I'm like 'there are four belts there', so why is it not the five belt era? In terms of the perception, the IBO belt ain't all that."
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Later in their final press conference, Joshua expanded on his thoughts, saying: "Looking at the champions, it's just a shambles. When you're trying to compete mandatories, negotiations, honestly I just can't believe not fights have been made at the championship level.
"But I'm just so happy that I can get back to work and get on with my job. I'm looking forward to this assignment and I can't wait, honestly, I'm really looking forward to it."
