Eddie Hearn confirmed today that Anthony Joshua has officially exercised his contractual rematch clause, and will face Oleksandr Usyk in his next fight.
Usyk beat Joshua on Sept. 25 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and while there wasn’t a rematch clause via sanctioning body, Usyk did agree to one being put in the contract beforehand.
“(Joshua’s) got his head back in the game, he’s training now, and today we officially triggered the rematch,” Hearn said, saying that March is “realistically” when we’ll get the rematch.
Hearn feels this won’t be much like Joshua’s rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr, because he sees the results as quite different, calling the Ruiz loss more “humiliating” and the Usyk loss more a matter of tactics.
“This was a disappointing loss to a pound-for-pound great,” Hearn said. “(Joshua) got it wrong on the night, the strategy was wrong, the execution of the game plan was wrong. But you can’t take away from the brilliance of Oleksandr Usyk.”
Hearn said Joshua is “only interested” in the Usyk rematch, with no plans for anything else.
Hearn also noted that IBF featherweight titleholder Kid Galahad and WBC junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper will both be in action on Nov. 13 in Sheffield.