London ¨C Great Britain¡¯s Anthony Joshua said he was hungry and desperate to take his world heavyweight titles back from Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk when they meet in a rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 20.
The pair went face-to-face with each other during a news conference in London on Wednesday ahead of the ¡°Rage on the Red Sea¡± clash.
Usyk beat Joshua in front of a sellout crowd at London¡¯s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September to take the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts.
Joshua also lost the belts, to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, before regaining them in Saudi Arabia later that year.
¡°Someone said to me today ¡®you¡¯ve got a chance of becoming a three-times heavyweight champion of the world,¡¯¡± Joshua said.
¡°I said it¡¯s not really where you want to be... you want to stay there and keep it. So I¡¯m definitely desperate to get my hands on it.
¡°Less talk, more action. Let me just get in there and do my job. I¡¯m not a comedian, I¡¯m not someone who writes speeches. I¡¯m definitely hungry, definitely desperate but at the end of the day how I perform will speak volumes to the masses.¡±
Joshua promised fans the second Usyk fight will be better than the first.
The 32-year-old Briton, who has a new trainer in American former super-featherweight world champion Robert Garcia, described the previous defeat as a ¡®blip.¡¯
¡°What happened then is in the past, I don¡¯t really live in the past,¡± he said on Wednesday. ¡°August 20 I¡¯ll be present and looking forward to competing round by round. If I follow my As, Bs and Cs, it should lead me to KO.¡±
Usuyk, wearing a blue and yellow ¡®Colors of Freedom¡¯ top, said was a different fighter than he was before.
Alex Krassyuk, the unbeaten 35-year-old¡¯s promoter, said the Russian invasion of his homeland would be in the hearts and minds of all.
¡°Ukrainians are strong, and Usyk is the true son of the Ukrainian nation,¡± he said.
¡°It took us some huge efforts to make this fight happen due to the circumstances, we are now representing our native country, Ukraine, with hearts full of pride and determination.¡±
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.