Anthony Joshua believes that he is still on "the road to undisputed" despite his loss to Oleksandr Usyk, declaring himself the "comeback king".
Joshua has twice become the unified world heavyweight champion after he was forced to reclaim his belts from Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 following an embarrassing defeat in their summer meeting. But he is the underdog for the first time as a professional after being comprehensively beaten by Usyk back in September.
Today, the pair reunited for the first time since their meeting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in September. They were in Jeddah to launch their massive money world title bout, and are set for another press conference in London next week to further promote the bout.
And Joshua insisted that his focus is still on becoming undisputed champion, which would entail of first defeating Usyk and then beating Tyson Fury for the WBC belt. He promised that his last loss was just a "blip on the road", and guaranteed that he would still become the first undisputed champion at heavyweight in the four-belt era.
"Definitely the hunger is still there," Joshua said at the event today. "As I always said from the get-go, stay hungry. Just keep the motivation high, blips happen, things happen in life.
"But resilience, mental toughness and consistency will always prevail so we're still on the road to undisputed for sure. It's just a little blip on the road but I'm focused on the target which is sitting over there, focused on the goal and God-willing I will perform and become three-time heavyweight champion.
“I’m the comeback king; you can put me down but it’s difficult to keep me down. Even through my tough times, everything will make sense in the long run."
Joshua was the favourite going into his first meeting with Usyk after the unbeaten former cruiserweight champion had laboured to his first wins at the new weight. But he boxed with an awful game plan, and never looked close to beating the Ukrainian in front of around 64,000 home fans.
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But he has admitted his faults, telling the audience today that the champion had "busted his ass for some rounds" during the fight. And with a new trainer in Robert Garcia, he believes he will do the business again in Saudi Arabia.
“I can admit when I’m wrong,” he continued. “The fight in September I was wrong and he was right. I have to reverse that role in August 20. If I keep things simple, I can achieve great things.
"I’m going to keep things simple - with Andy Ruiz, I think a lot of people can see before the fight things weren’t 100 per cent. You have to be strong, thick skinned. You take your loss like a man. I knew I could come back again and do what I have to do again.”
