DAZN has officially announced that unified IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (24-1) will return to the ring to defend his titles against former cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (18-0) on September 25.
This will be Anthony Joshua’s second defense of his unified heavyweight titles since regaining them in December 2019 against Andy Ruiz Jr. Earlier this year, Joshua was scheduled for a fight against Tyson Fury to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion but it fell through after an arbitrary judge ordered a third fight between Fury and Deontay Wilder.
Anthony Joshua first became heavyweight champion in April 2016 when he defeated Charles Martin to win the IBF Heavyweight title. After two successful title defenses against Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina, Joshua would unify his IBF belt with the IBO, WBA and WBO belts when he defeated former champion Wladimir Klitschko.
In June 2019, after reigning as unified champion for three years, Anthony Joshua would suffer his professional loss and subsequently lose his titles in an upset to Andy Ruiz Jr. via seventh round technical knockout. He would regain his belts that December beating Ruiz in a rematch.
This will be Joshua’s first time back in the ring since successfully defending his world titles against Kubrat Pulev this past December.
This will be Oleksandr Usyk’s third fight in the heavyweight division and his first shot at becoming heavyweight champion. Usyk began his professional career in 2013 coming off winning an Olympic gold medal at heavyweight in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Fighting in the cruiserweight division, Usyk became cruiserweight champion in his 10th professional fight defeating Krzysztof Glowacki to win the WBO Cruiserweight title in September 2016.
Oleksandr Usyk successfully defended his cruiserweight title twice before he would enter himself in the World Boxing Super Series. After a successful title defense in the first round, he became unified WBO and WBC champion after defeating Mairis Breidis in the semifinal.
In the finals, Usyk defeated Murat Gassiev not only winning the tournament but also becoming undisputed cruiserweight champion the first in the division’s history in the four-belt era.
After successfully defending his undisputed championship against Tony Bellew, Usyk moved up to the heavyweight division. He made his debut in the heavyweight division in Chazz Witherspoon in October 2019 and most recently defeated veteran heavyweight Dereck Chisora last October.