Nigerian-born former two-time world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Olaseni Oluwafemi Joshua, has received an unexpected opportunity to win a third global title from his November 11th bout with Tyson Fury.
Sports247 reports that Joshua could follow the footsteps of Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield (four titles), Michael Moorer, Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko as the next three-time champ should he defeat ‘The Gypsy King’ next month.
The rare chance for ‘AJ’ to join the five legends in the annals of three-time world champions comes from a confirmation that his upcoming mega fight with Fury will be for the World Boxing Association (WBA) super heavyweight belt.
This much was disclosed by Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, who emphasised that the long-awaited clash between both British rivals, now billed for the 11th of next month at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, will have the WBA’s ‘super’ or ‘primary’ strap up for grabs.
It marks an amazing chance for Joshua to enter another chapter in history, as the WBA already have Murat Gassiev as their number one contender and he had been largely expected to automatically get an upgrade into full champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt.
However, Gassiev is about to be brushed aside due to the wider appeal, marketability and glamour of Fury versus Joshua, though they previously both lost their world titles to Usyk; they now have the chance to clinch another belt.
“That is the case at the moment. That’s going to be on the line. They’ve got a version of the belt. The objective, after Usyk vacated all the belts, is to find out who’s the best, who’s going to hold all the belts, who’s going to be the No 1 heavyweight.
“I’m sure Usyk will be back next year as well. It’s going to be really, really exciting times,” said Warren, who is also staging a big bout between another Nigerian-born former world heavyweight champion, Daniel Dubois, and Fabio Wardley this weekend.
He is now thinking of adding permutations and the result of Saturday’s Dubois-Wardley rematch for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) title in hyping Joshua’s bout with Fury, as both winners are tipped to clash next year.
Warren boasted further, “These guys are all looking to unify the titles and get involved in massive, massive fights in 2027. We made it, at Queensberry, our mantra to make these fights happen.
“We’ve got three of the four heavyweight champions on our roster, and we’re going to make unification fights next year. It would be really, really good for the winner of Tyson and AJ to be involved in that. There are some fabulous fights to be made and the heavyweight division is on fire.”
