ANTHONY JOSHUA acknowledges that his lopsided defeat against Oleksandr Usyk 'hurt his pride' as he didn't have any excuses.
After being defeated by the undefeated Ukrainian during their Tottenham tussle last Sept., the Watford warrior was unable to retain the unified heavyweight titles.
Last September, Anthony Joshua was defeated by Oleksandr Usyk in a close points match
AJ has had to take the defeat to Usyk, a southpaw who defeated Andy Ruiz Jr in a dramatic stoppage two-and-a-half years back, with a bitter pill.
Sky Sports spoke to the 32-year old: "I belong at the top stage."
"I belong as champion, I belong to this current generation. You'll see.
"If I didn’t fight the hardest, I might have won. People expect me to be a good fighter, and I have high standards for myself.
"That's why I feel that when I lost the first time, I didn't make excuses.
"But, I had my reasons and I always felt cool because i took my loss because i knew I would get it back so i just brushed that one aside.
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"But this one hurt, because I was at 100%. No problems, everything was great, and I just lost the night to the better man."
Joshua has been a victim of the defeat of the undisputed cruiserweight king, which has ignited a fire under him. He has promised to rise again after mentally getting off the ground.
He stated, "It gave my motivation to get out of that place where it was mentally killing me."
"I have fought my own way back, and I will be able to redeem myself."
Joshua will be able to rely on a new coaching team for the spring rematch against Usyk. However, it is not known if Joshua has parted with his long-time trainer Rob McCracken.
Joshua stated that he is a loyal character during his appearance at Expo 2020 Dubai. Loyalty is important to me.
"I was based in Sheffield, and we had a great conversation with my coach. I want to try new things and try a different environment.
"Maybe I could do a Dubai training camp, maybe I could do a camp in Africa, or in America - it would just be a new environment for me to feel inspired and take the heavyweight division by storm."
"New environment, good coaches, and then go to war. It's a warrior mindset.
SunSport has confirmed that Joshua's rematch with Uysk, which could be a do-or-die match, is scheduled for late March or early April.
In the next few weeks, an official announcement will be made.
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