Boxing
Dillian Whyte bars Anthony Joshua from his fight with Tyson Fury
Dillian Whyte has told Anthony Joshua he is not welcome at Saturday’s dust-up with Tyson Fury.
The Body Snatcher wants Joshua to snub a ringside seat at Wembley to focus on saving his own career in his July rematch with Ukraine’s Olesksandr Usyk.
Whyte, who battles Fury for his WBC heavyweight crown, said: “I don’t want AJ at my fight. He needs to fight Usyk and focus on that.
“In the build-up to the last Usyk fight he was too worried about re-matching me and telling people he wanted to beat me up.
“I wanted to shout out ‘bro, leave me alone and focus on Usyk’. And then look what happened, he got in the fight and looked spaced out, clueless.
“He needs to focus on what he has to do, he needs to forget becoming undisputed and worry about Usyk, because if he doesn’t beat Usyk then where does he go?
“Now is the best time to face Usyk, who knows where the poor guy’s head is at. If you can’t beat Usyk now – with what he has been through – then you never will.
“I don’t want Anthony Joshua to retire because I want to fight him again.”
Whyte beat Joshua in 2009 during their amateur days before losing to him in their pro fight in 2015.
Joshua, 32, has backed Whyte to win but only because he “hates” his fellow Londoner and wants to “smash him”.
Whyte is far kinder to Joshua – who is set to challenge Usyk for his old WBA, IBF and WBO belts in Saudi Arabia on July 23 – in the hope of getting the chance to settle scores.
If Whyte can upset Fury in front of 94,000 fans will be able to pick any opponent he wants and spark a bidding war in England and America.
He added: “If I wake up on Sunday morning as the heavyweight champion of the world, AJ won’t be my first thought.
“I will be running around the whole hotel and streets with nothing but my belt on, naked… doing the helicopter!”
Boxing
Undisputed World Boxing Champion, Oleksandr Usyk detained and released in Poland
Undisputed heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk has been released after detention by law-enforcement officers at Poland’s Krakow airport, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.
“I was outraged by this attitude towards our citizen and champion,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Our champion was released and no one is detaining him anymore.”
It was not immediately clear why the 37-year-old Usyk was detained. The WBC, WBO and WBA champion, who also won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, has been a national hero aiding Kyiv’s war efforts.
Poland’s foreign and interior ministries did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comments.
“Friends, everything is fine,” Usyk said in an Instagram post. “There was a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved. Thank you to everyone who was concerned.”
He added, “Respect to the Polish law enforcement officers who perform their duties regardless of height, weight, arm span, and titles.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that his ministry will contact the Polish foreign ministry, as it considered the detention “disproportionate and unacceptable in relation to our champion.”
Polish TVP Info, a television news channel run by state broadcaster TVP, published a social media video on its website showing Polish law-enforcement officers walking the handcuffed Usyk through what appeared to be an airport.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the video.
Usyk beat Tyson Fury in May to become undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion in a thrilling contest at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
The 37-year-old Ukrainian is the first boxer to hold all four major heavyweight belts at the same time and the first undisputed champ since the end of Lennox Lewis’ reign in April 2000.
Usyk’s charity fund, Usyk Foundation, aids Kyiv’s forces in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion against Ukraine in 2022. It buys, among others, ambulances and delivers humanitarian aid to the front line.
Usyk’s wife, Yekaterina Usyk, who posted a blurred photo of her husband surrounded by uniformed officers, said in an Instagram post in English that she was thankful her husband was free after a misunderstanding.
-Reuters
Boxing
Tyson says Paul will ‘run like a thief’ in the ring
Mike Tyson said he was fit and ready for his Nov. 15 fight against Jake Paul as the two boxers had a joint news conference in New York City on Sunday.
The match was originally scheduled for July 20 but was postponed after former heavyweight champion Tyson, 58, had an ulcer flare-up that forced some resting time.
“Iron Mike”, who has a 50-6 record with 44 knockouts, was one of the most feared heavyweights in history but has not fought a professional fight since 2005.
When asked why he returned to the ring so long after retirement, Tyson’s response was clear: “Because I can. Who else can do it but me? We have a YouTuber fighting the greatest fighter ever to live.”
“He may have been in the ring with people who have the same intentions, but the actuality, no.
“As soon as I catch this guy it’s going to be totally over, he is going to run. He is gonna run like a thief.”
Paul, who was booed and heckled by the crowd, claimed he would put Tyson to sleep.
“I am here to make 40 million dollars and knock out a legend,” Paul said.
“I love Mike and I respect him but we are not friends anymore until Nov. 15,” he said.
When asked if he was afraid of being in the ring with Paul, Tyson replied sarcastically: “I am terrified.”
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, 27, is 31 years his junior and has a 10-1 boxing record.
The fight will be streamed live globally on Netflix and will take place at the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
-Reuters
Boxing
Anthony Joshua’s opponent, Helenius gets two-year ban
Finland’s Robert Helenius has been banned for two years due to Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) for the presence and use of a prohibited substance for his bout against Britain’s Anthony Joshua in August 2023, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said on Friday.
Former heavyweight world champion Joshua beat stand-in Helenius with a seventh round single-punch knockout at the London O2 Arena.
But Helenius’s sample from a voluntary drug test the day before the bout tested positive for clomifene, which the Finnish boxer said may have originated from consuming eggs and chicken.
Helenius, now 40, was provisionally suspended and UKAD said he was unable to provide proof that “the eggs and chicken meat he had consumed in advance of the bout originated from hens that had been administered clomifene”.
“Mr Helenius was therefore unable to identify the source of clomifene in his sample and therefore unable to reduce the applicable period of ineligibility of two years,” UKAD added.
However, UKAD said that since Helenius was provisionally suspended on Sept. 18, 2023, he has already served 10 months of his ban which will expire on Sept. 17, 2025.
-Reuters
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