Anthony Joshua beating Oleksandr Usyk would be ‘best win’ of any heavyweight – even Tyson Fury

Anthony Joshua will hold the best win in the heavyweight division if he beats Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday, believes former world champion Johnny Nelson. 

Joshua, 32, returns to Saudi Arabia – where he avenged his shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 – for another career-defining rematch, having lost to the Ukrainian mastermind in September last year. 

The two-time heavyweight champion was totally outclassed on a damaging evening as former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk made his mark as a heavyweight and as a pound-for-pound great. 

Usyk, who claimed Joshua’s WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight belts with victory, remains unbeaten since turning professional, with many now picking the masterful southpaw as their pound-for-pound No 1. 

Former cruiserweight champion Nelson insists Usyk resembles a tougher challenge for Joshua than 2017 opponent Wladimir Klitschko. He also believes a win over Usyk would be greater than a win over WBC champion Tyson Fury.  

‘Usyk’s an outstanding fighter,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘He’s no fool; he’s wise and he has more experience than Anthony Joshua, but he’s not an unbeatable fighter.

‘For Anthony Joshua to beat Oleksandr Usyk, that would be his biggest win. Not Klitschko, it wouldn’t even be Tyson Fury.

‘This would be his biggest win, because he’d be beating somebody who is classed as outstanding, as the heavyweight version of [Vasyl] Lomachenko.

‘Joshua would be beating someone he’s not supposed to beat. To me, it’s a more significant win for Anthony Joshua than anything.’

Joshua, though falling to two defeats from 26 fights, already has a stacked resume, having beaten Klitschko, Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin. 

British rival Fury also holds victories over Whyte and Klitschko, having also claimed successive stoppage wins over Deontay Wilder. 

But Nelson insists a victory over Usyk for Joshua would be the best of the lot. 

‘Yes, I believe it would be,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to look at credentials of the fighters coming through. Usyk was a unique fighter, the cruiserweight undisputed champion.

‘He has all the pedigree. So, on paper, he’s technically the best win out there in the world for Anthony Joshua.’

Nelson has picked Joshua to emerge victorious via a late stoppage, insisting the Briton will have learned from the mistakes he made last time out. 

He also believes the winner of the fight will likely face Fury next, insisting the Gypsy King’s latest retirement claims can’t be believed – despite the 34-year-old giving up his Ring Magazine belt. 

‘Even if you ask his fans, they don’t buy it either,’ Nelson said. He’s like the boy who cried wolf. 

‘He got rid of the Ring Magazine belt, but why hasn’t he got rid of the other belt? It’s just coincidental that it’s the week Anthony Joshua’s boxing. It’s just coincidental that Fury does it then.

‘But Fury is in a position where, if someone competes for the Ring Magazine belt, and Tyson Fury boxes across the world against someone else, more people will travel to watch Fury than whoever fights for the belt. He’s bigger than the belt. Floyd Mayweather was one of those guys.

‘Fury understands that no matter what happens with that belt, no one ever took it off him. The general public are thinking, “Oh my god, he’s given up the belt.” But, in reality, he’s still deemed as that man, as that fighter. 

‘So, that’s why he can do what he’s done. He ain’t retired.’