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SugarHill Steward, the head trainer of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, says the recent offer to assist Anthony Joshua is genuine.
Back in September, Oleksandr Usyk outboxed Joshua over twelve rounds to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
A rematch is being positioned for the first quarter of 2022.
In the aftermath, Fury revealed in an interview that he would be willing to train Joshua for the expected rematch.
For his part, Joshua didn’t take the offer too seriously.
“Yeah lovely mate, if he takes no money for it. I don’t know if he’s after a quid or two. He’s more than welcome to come through the doors, he can even spar with me as well,” Joshua said to IFL TV.
On the other hand, Steward explains that Fury is very serious about the scenario of helping his British rival.
“We are 100 percent serious about helping Joshua in camp. We want him to defeat Usyk, for a start, because we want to see Fury against Joshua, and so do all the fans of boxing in the world,” Steward told Talk Sport.
“It is not a ruse or a joke, we would happily help Joshua because he is capable of beating Usyk in the rematch, and this is nothing new. In the old days, all boxers travelled to different gyms for assistance. This is a sport, and we have to think of it as a sport.
“Never forget that when heavyweight boxing is strong, the whole of boxing is strong. The biggest fight in the sport is Fury versus Joshua, and we all know what that would do for the sport with the two of them fighting for the undisputed crown. It couldn’t be bigger.”
Last month, Joshua traveled to the United States and spent some time with several high profile trainers. There is heavy speculation that Joshua will add a new trainer to his team in order to prepare for the Usyk rematch.