According to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, Anthony Joshua would be “accepted” to challenge Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight title.
Fury and Usyk will compete for all the belts on May 18 in Saudi Arabia. Later in the year, they are anticipated to rematch. While this was going on, Joshua(28-3, 25KOs) from England was patiently waiting for his chance. He had defeated former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou via second-round knockout and the prize for winning had been constantly mentioned as facing one of the top two in the division.
According to Sulaiman, nothing would prevent Joshua from eventually meeting Usyk or Fury. “The WBC was presented a sanction request which was to fight for the undisputed. The WBC accepted that sanctioning and we accepted the rematch they have requested,” said Sulaiman in media reports.
“But, if it is not anything to do with contractual or promotion, we would absolutely accept the winner to fight Joshua. The WBC has been very much attentive to this matter. So we have completely freed the ground for the undisputed, for a rematch, and for another fight of that level,” he added.
“The WBC position right now is very open to support the undisputed champion taking on the fights that the fans want to see,” he continued.
Following the MMA star’s spectacular boxing debut against Fury, Joshua decisively stopped Ngannou three times during the evening to make yet another statement. The former unified heavyweight champion, who lost his titles to Usyk, is still working to regain his world title opportunity. This was his third consecutive stoppage victory.
“It was unbelievable. He looked like a champion of the world – tremendous, powerful, precise and he made a statement. I am very proud and happy for him,” said Sulaiman
“That is how the world is, they judge you by your last performance and now he is a power force and everybody is claiming he is the best heavyweight in the world, last year they were saying he was washed up. Now, everyone is saying Fury is all washed up but we will see on May 18,” he explained.
