Joshua vs Usyk press conference LIVE: Latest updates as heavyweights face off ahead of rematch

T-minus 30 minutes until the press conference begins!

Speaking of Fury... Here’s Indy Sport columnist Steve Bunce on why the boxers who fight retirement always lose:

“Fighters retire and go into exile for a variety of reasons and stay retired and stay in exile for a variety of reasons. Muhammad Ali was stopped from fighting by the US government, Marvin Hagler refused to fight again because of boxing politics. Hagler’s exile was made complete when he vanished to Italy and went on the missing list.

“Big George Foreman listened to his God when he quit and heard the same voice when he started to fight again 10 years later. Floyd Mayweather was carefully picking his opponents long before his retirement from boxing; Mayweather will continue to blur the line between retirement, exhibition fight, real fight, ceremony and event for a long, long time. Mayweather has set the agenda; the others will follow on a circuit of golden oldies.

“Fury will be back next year in a real fight, this year possibly in an exhibition and then expect that pattern to last for a decade or more. Fury insists that he will be fighting for all the right reasons: Cash and fun. I hope so.”

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The obvious question is whether the #RageOnTheRedSea marks Joshua’s last chance to set up an in-ring meeting with Tyson Fury, who claims – to the disbelief of most – that he has had his last dance.

Most would answer ‘yes’, but when Joshua, 32, was knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr three years ago, the feeling was the same. Yet AJ responded with a mature performance at the end of 2019 to outpoint Ruiz Jr and reclaim his heavyweight belts. When the Briton lost them again, this time to Usyk last autumn, the probability of a clash with Fury faded to a mere possibility and then – with Fury’s ‘retirement’ after knocking out Dillian Whyte in April – an improbability.

And yes, if Joshua is to lose to Usyk once more, it is all but certain that we will never see that all-British heavyweight unification bout. It will be the lost fight of this generation, in Britain at least.

If Joshua is indeed defeated by the unbeaten Ukrainian again, calls for his retirement will be loud and plentiful – if unjustified. For Joshua, as much as he was seemingly engineered from birth and later moulded by Hearn to be heavyweight champion, does not need to be defined by that status; nor does his career need to be defined by a potential fight with Fury.

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Usyk-Joshua 2 was finally announced on Sunday. Here’s our story:

Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch will officially take place on 20 August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Usyk took the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles from Joshua in September, beating the Briton via unanimous decision at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Now Joshua (24-2, 22 knockouts) will look to avenge that defeat and regain the belts, but to do so he must do something that no fighter has managed during Usyk’s professional career: beat the Ukrainian.

A rematch between the pair was expected to take place this spring, but Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) instead returned to his home country to aid Ukraine’s defence against the ongoing Russian invasion.

The 35-year-old – the only man to have been undisputed cruiserweight champion in the four-belt era – ultimately left Ukraine to begin training for a second fight with Joshua, and that bout has now been announced at last.

More below:

Ahead of their highly-anticipated rematch this August, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk will take part in a press conference today and come face to face for the first time since their heavyweight title fight in London last September.

Usyk outboxed Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to ease to a unanimous-decision win and claim the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts. In doing so, the Ukrainian remained unbeaten, while the result marked the second time “AJ” had lost as a professional and the second time he had dropped the titles. Joshua will bid to regain the gold in this rematch, just as he did against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, with the Briton’s second clash with Usyk scheduled for 20 August. It had been expected to be held in spring, but Usyk returned to his home country to aid its defence against the ongoing Russian invasion, forcing a delay.

The fight will now take place in Saudi Arabia, where Joshua outpointed Ruiz Jr to avenge his knockout loss to the Mexican-American three years ago, though that rematch was held in Riyadh, while Usyk-Joshua 2 will play out in Jeddah. An exact venue could be announced at today’s press conference, where Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is also set to be present.