Anthony Joshua says he’s determined to be “the comeback king” and avenge his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua insists he is ready for Usyk this time. “He was better than me in the first fight that night, but the defeat motivated me,” said Joshua. “Like I did against Andy Ruiz Jr, I have a second chance. Those who know my story know that I did that as a youngster, where I got into trouble.”
“I’m the comeback king, you can take me down, but you can’t stop me. I’m 100 percent focused on being a champion again. He kicked my a– for a few rounds, and he was the better man in the night.”
Usyk, who served three months in the territorial regiment in his home country this year to fight the Russian invasion, said one of the most difficult moments of his life was explaining to his children why Russian soldiers “wanted to kill them”.
“I don’t even know how to explain all this,” said the fighter whose house was at one point taken over by Russian soldiers. “My children ask, ‘Father, why do they want to kill us?’ And I don’t know what to answer them.
“I really didn’t want to leave our country, I didn’t want to leave our city. At one point I went to the hospital where soldiers were wounded and rehabilitated from the war and they told me, asked me to go, to fight [Joshua], fight for the country, fight for our pride. If you go there, they said to me, you are going to help even more for our country instead of being here and fighting within our country.”
On which TV channel can Joshua-Usyk II be seen?
Joshua vs Usyk 2 will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK, as revealed exclusively by Telegraph Sport. DAZN will broadcast the fight everywhere else except the UK.
How much does it cost to watch the fight?
The fight on Sky Sports Box Office cost viewers a record £26.95, the most expensive fight in British history.
Who’s on the undercard?
- Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk 2
- Badou Jack vs Richard Rivera
- Callum Smith vs Mathieu Bauderlique (WBC Light-Heavyweight Finals Eliminator)
- Filip Hrgovic vs Zhilei Zhang (IBF heavyweight final eliminator)
- Tyron Spong vs Andrew Tabiti
- Daniel Lapin vs Jozef Jurko
- Ramla Ali vs. Crystal Garcia Nova
- Ziyad Almaayouf vs Hector Alatorre