Frank Warren thinks Anthony Joshua should take warm up fight, allow Oleksandr Usyk to unify with Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury’s UK promoter Frank Warren tells Sky Sports that he doesn’t believe Anthony Joshua should’ve enacted his immediate rematch clause with Oleksandr Usyk, instead openly opining that Joshua should take a tune-up bout to get his confidence back which would allow for Tyson Fury to face Oleksandr Usyk for undisputed heavyweight champion status.

“He shouldn’t be going through with it,” WBC champion Fury’s UK-based promoter Warren told Sky Sports about Joshua. “It’s his choice. If he knocks it on the head, it opens the door for us to do the unification [Fury vs Usyk]. Let AJ get a warm-up fight. He needs a winning mentality before he goes into [a rematch with Usyk].”

Irrespective of Warren’s thoughts on the matter, Joshua does in fact plan to go through with his contractual rematch with Usyk, which is roughly expected to take place in the spring of 2022. And should Usyk win that rematch and move on to unify with Fury, Warren figures that it’ll surely be a fight that Fury wins because not only does he have technical skills to match Usyk, but he also sports physical size advantage.

But with Warren confident that Usyk will once again handle Joshua in their impending rematch, a unification with Tyson Fury will presumably still be available — just probably not until the second half of next year.