Anthony Joshua told Oleksandr Usyk to keep his "head up" in a display of class after their recent face-off.
Joshua will rematch Usyk this summer in Saudi Arabia after losing his unified titles to the champion elect last year. The event was set to be staged in April but the Ukrainian opted to return home and take up arms to defend his country from Russian invasion.
Joshua and Usyk came together in a tense face-off in Saudi Arabia last week after the fight was confirmed at a press conference in Jeddah. The pair shared a brief conversation during a second promotional face-to-face in which Joshua acted with huge respect to his opponent, asking: “How’s your family?” Usyk replied: "Good." Before Joshua added to conclude the conversation: “Everything in Ukraine – keep your head up, yeah?”
Usyk then nods his head before the pair shake hands in a real sign of mutual appreciation ahead of the rematch. Prior to the exchange, the pair had also taken a selfie together which has been included on promotion of the bumper sequel. The Ukrainian star journeyed home after winning the titles last year to join the Kyiv Territorial Defence alongside fighters Vitali Klitschko and Vasyl Lomachenko.
He initially came into criticism for returning to training after putting his career on hold to bravely defend his country. He vowed to "kill" if necessary to protect his family and was pictured alongside two other men with a gun during his return home. Usyk has since described the torrid scenes on his home soil, which included being shot at while in his home.
“I know they shot at our house, broke down the gate, and dragged away some of our neighbours,” Usyk told Profiboxing.cz. “But I don’t know what it looks like there now. We can’t get in touch with anyone. It’s terrible when yours run to hide in the basement at every rustle. I came back via Poland. It took a day to get to Kyiv.
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"Then another two to see my family and I calmed down a bit. I may have picked up a gun, but that doesn’t mean I would use it, I didn’t think for a moment that I would stay there. This fight ( Anthony Joshua rematch) will be special for me in that respect." Despite the respect between the pair, it will have to be business as usual for the pair now who have both entered training camps for the second meeting.
Joshua has altered his team to try and secure victory in his revenge mission adding coach Robert Garcia to his corner alongside Angel Fernandez. It will be the British star's second attempt at avenging defeat in the Middle East having overturned his first career loss to Andy Ruiz in a money-spinning event back in 2019.
