Anthony Joshua admits he is ‘out of title race’ as he plans next step

“I’ll fight whoever’s ready; I’m ready and we’ll get cracking in the new year. I want to be consistent, be fit to fight, and everything comes off the back of that.

“I’m dying for the world championship, 100 per cent. That’s all my heart and soul is leading towards, [but] I lost a fight this year which took me out of the championship title race.

“When you’re constantly fighting for championships after championships, you’re constantly in the race for a long time. When I lost, I was finally out of the race, and overcoming that was a new beginning […] realising that this isn’t my norm anymore. It’s challenging to overcome that.

“I’ve always been a competitor, a challenge to me is just another obstacle that I can get over, and for some, I feel like it’s easier to knock them down and keep them down.”

Joshua’s defeat by Usyk in August was his second straight loss to the unbeaten Ukrainian, who outpointed the Briton in September 2021 to win the unified heavyweight titles.

Joshua’s only prior professional loss came in 2019, when he suffered a surprise TKO defeat by Andy Ruiz Jr. Joshua avenged that result by outpointing the Mexican-American at the end of that year to regain the titles he had lost to Ruiz Jr – the same belts he later lost to Usyk.

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