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Published 19:33 IST, October 16th 2019

Anthony Joshua may vacate titles if he beats Ruiz Jr says Hearn

In an interview, promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that Anthony Joshua may be forced to vacate some of his titles if he defeats Andy Ruiz Jr in their rematch.

Reported by: Adil Khan
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In an interview, promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that Anthony Joshua may be forced to vacate some of his titles if he defeats Andy Ruiz Jr in their upcoming rematch. After his defeat to Ruiz earlier, Joshua would want to win back all the three belts he lost. The match is scheduled to happen on December 7 in Saudi Arabia. The winner of the match has to fight the upcoming matches.

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These matches are mandatory where the winner will defend his title. However, the winner can’t fight back to back matches, so he has to choose between the two. Either he can fight to defend his IBF title against Kubrat Pulev or fight Oleksandr Usyk to defend his WBO belt. Eddie Hearn revealed that, if Joshua wins the match against Andy Ruiz Jr, he may not be involved in the match against Usyk and will be forced to vacate one of his belts. Usyk could be fighting for a vacant world title next year.

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Anthony Joshua: Here's what Eddie Hearn has said

Speaking to a news website, Hearn said that Usyk is supposed to fight the winner of the Joshua-Ruiz match, that’s what he’s mandated to do. He won’t be fighting another match this year. They’re not boxing every couple of months. So Usyk goes to Saudi and watches the fight between Joshua and Ruiz. Hearn then talked about Usyk and said we’ll see how Usyk looks on Saturday night when he faces Chazz Witherspoon. Eddie Hearn then has spoken about the vacant belt and said that Usyk is going to probably end up fighting for a vacant world title because the winner of Joshua-Ruiz match won’t want to fight him, he’ll have to vacate.

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Hearn then predicted the upcoming match in Saudi Arabia and revealed that Joshua will come out victorious against Andy Ruiz Jr. Hearn then added that Joshua may fight the match against Usyk as he does not want to vacate any of his titles. Earlier, Hearn had revealed that Joshua will fight on the match which will attract a lot of money and a lot of fame. So, he may not play against Usyk and wait for the opportunity to fight against the boxer like Tyson Fury.

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17:00 IST, October 16th 2019