Anthony Joshua can still fight for the undisputed heavyweight title despite closing the door on his Road to Undisputed dream.
AJ dropped his motto along with JD Sports when he lost twice against Oleksandr Usyk. The Londoner saw Usyk get the opportunity to fight for all the belts ahead of him.
Before his last victory, the two-time champion expressed his opinion to TNT Sports: “That will not happen again. I think it’s just reality.
“What will happen is that Usyk and Fury can now compete for the undisputed title. Once they compete for the undisputed, the belts will be divided again.
“And I think it would probably take me five or six years to get all the belts and beat all the independent champions.
“That will probably get me to 40-41 years old, so it’s probably not going to be on my calendar,” he added.
Undisputed Heavyweight Title
Usyk, who holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts, easily snatched Joshua and retained them in 2021 and 2022. The formidable Ukrainian will face Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia on the ‘Ring of Fire’ show on the 17th. of February.
The clash will be the first undisputed heavyweight title fight since Lennox Lewis won all the gold in the late 1990s.
Although Joshua’s door was briefly closed, it has since been left ajar following Deontay Wilder’s loss to Joseph Parker. After doing his part with a victory over Otto Wallin, Joshua was due to face Wilder on March 9 and again later in 2024.
The “Bronze Bomber” cost Joshua a lot of cash in winnings. He went down with a whimper to the New Zealander on points.
Anthony Joshua’s path to the undisputed
But what Wilder’s misfortune did was put Joshua’s foot in the indisputable door. With no links to Wilder, Joshua can now pursue a vacant IBF battle with Filip Hrgovic.
Having lost twice to Usyk, Joshua must wait in line for a chance to find the winner in a two-fight series. However, he is in line to pick up the IBF belt against Hrgovic when he is almost certainly vacated.
In that case, Joshua must hope that the WBO gives Fury vs Usyk II an exception so that any battle with the victor can remain undisputed.
The WBO, like the WBC, tends to be lenient with respect to undisputed ones. The WBA will also look favorably on Fury vs Usyk II due to the finances involved.
Therefore, Joshua could once again be the ruler of the IBF by the end of spring. He would just have to wait another fight to have a chance with the winner of Fury vs Usyk.
Even if the WBO follows the IBF and vacates its belt, Joshua still has time to unify the IBF and WBO titles while Fury vs Usyk II is completed.
That could be around August or September, leaving another undisputed heavyweight battle open for late 2024 or early 2025.
Joshua’s path to Undisputed is not closed yet.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer and has been the editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
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