Anthony Joshua will become only the FIFTH three-time heavyweight champion if he beats Oleksandr Usyk

Whether it was a plea for due recognition or a powerful tool of self-motivation, Anthony Joshua was speaking from the heart as his world heavyweight championship rematch with Oleksandr Usyk looms ever nearer.

‘When Usyk beat me he became a pound-for-pound great,’ he said. ‘So what happens if I win here on Saturday night? Do I become a pound-for-pound great?’

A good question. One for which promoter Eddie Hearn had this answer: ‘Of course he does. Oleksandr shot to the top of those rankings the night he took AJ’s world titles. So if AJ wins them back here the same should happen for him.’

Anthony Joshua wants to be recognised as a pound-for-pound great if he beats Oleksandr Usyk

The Englishman will become a three-time heavyweight world champion if he is victorious

A complex argument. Usyk is actually rated pound-for-pound No 2 by Ring Magazine, the Bible of boxing. But his legacy case is underpinned by him becoming the first undisputed cruiserweight champion of the four-belt era — in that hugely competitive division — before moving up to heavyweight and lifting those WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts. 

After so doing with a dazzling performance against Joshua, the Ukrainian war hero remains undefeated.

Britain’s golden Olympian — having been knocked out by roly-poly Mexican Andy Ruiz Jnr and then comprehensively out-pointed by Usyk — hopes to stake his claim by joining the elite band of three-time world heavyweight champions.

Joshua became a two-time world champion after he won his rematch with Andy Ruiz

Namely Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko and Evander Holyfield, the last of whom went on to become the only four-time champion.

It will be a major achievement if Joshua can join them on that page of the history books by fighting his way to redemption against Usyk. But a place in the pantheon of all-time ring greats demands more, even, than being a triple crown winner.

It also demands close scrutiny of how that was achieved. Klitschko’s record — even though he was more dynamic and dangerous than his younger brother Wladimir in the ring and has carried his conspicuous bravery into their front-line defiance of the Russian invasion — does not put him the top 10 heavyweights ever. 

Nor does the technicality of winning his first title by knocking out Herbie Hide before the WBO title became fully recognised.

Usyk will attempt to hold onto his world heavyweight belts when the pair meet on Saturday

Usyk comfortably beat Joshua when the heavyweight duo fought in London last year

Lewis — even though the first of his three titles was conferred upon him outside the ring after Riddick Bowe threw the WBC belt into a London dustbin rather than fight him — began qualifying for greatness by the quality of most of his subsequent performances as Britain’s first world heavyweight champion for 100 years. 

Victory for Joshua could set up a unification fight with fellow Brit Tyson Fury

He also included Holyfield among his victims and finished it all off by stopping the elder Klitschko in a bloodbath of a last fight.

Holyfield really is the Real Deal, as the only undisputed world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight during the three-belt era.

It was not his fault that James Buster Douglas had gone to fat in the months after his upset of Mike Tyson, so chose to lay down under the Las Vegas sun. It would be hard to begrudge him nabbing his fourth title during a monotonous trilogy against ponderous John Ruiz.

He endorsed his credentials by winning the second fight of his epic trilogy with Bowe, on the night the so-called Fan Man parachuted into the outdoor ring on the Vegas Strip. And with his 11th-round stoppage of Iron Mike by way of a stunning prelude to Tyson biting off his ear in their second encounter.

Ali, of course, is the Greatest. The unbelievable slaying of Sonny Liston when only 22. The astounding rope-a-dope KO of the mighty George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle a full decade later. 

Following that, another four years on, revenge over Neon Leon Spinks was but a historic post-script.

Victory over Usyk will place Joshua in the company of greats such as Muhammad Ali

Now Joshua goes for the magic hat-trick. Driven by the realisation that overcoming the formidable Usyk would raise his stock far higher than beating the hapless Charles Martin in his first world championship fight, then winning his rematch with Ruiz on another night in Saudi Arabia for which the Mexican had trained on tacos and tequila.

Pound-for-pound greatness might require going on to meet and beat Tyson Fury. But if he emerges victorious from the Rage on the Red Sea, AJ should earn the unmitigated respect for which he yearns.