Oleksandr Usyk will watch Joshua vs Ruiz Jr ringside as he eyes fight with winner – The Sun

OLEKSANDR USYK will be ringside to watch Andy Ruiz Jr vs Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia on December 7.

As mandatory challenger to the WBO belt currently held by Ruiz Jr, Usyk is keen to waste no time in getting his shot at the titles that will be held by the winner of the hotly anticipated rematch.

And Eddie Hearn confirmed that the Ukrainian will be out in Saudi Arabia to watch the fight with keen interest: "He will be out in Saudi Arabia to watch that fight."

Having defeated Chazz Witherspoon at the weekend, Usyk plans to challenge the winner of Ruiz Jr-Joshua immediately in early 2020.

The 32-year-old said: "I am ready to fight them. If they are going to [offer] it to me, of course I am going to take it."

And Hearn pointed out that Usyk is chomping at the bit: "The instructions to me are: 'world heavyweight championship next'.

"It wouldn't hurt to have one more. But they say: 'we have won every belt at cruiserweight, we have had our heavyweight warm-up, we are ready'.

"My message is straight to the world title."

For his first fight as a heavyweight – six foot three Usyk weighed in at 15st 5lbs – over two stone lighter than Joshua and a whopping four stone lighter than Ruiz Jr.

But he isn't worried about the difference in weight: "I will add more weight. It is no problem to add more weight.

"The problem is speed. We need to add weight properly, the right way, because we don't want to lose boxing skills."

Joshua has been sparring old friend Dereck Chisora in preparation for his fight with Ruiz – with Chisora also gearing up for his October 26 clash with David Price.

He said: "“I am going to go and see AJ next week.

"He has asked me to spar a couple of times but I have been too busy lately but next week I will go and see him.

“We will go straight into sparring. He is tall like Price and I am short like Ruiz Jr."

And Chisora even went as far as to suggest that Joshua lost to Ruiz Jr because of the Miami "chicas".

He said: "The only problem – Joshua trained, it’s only he trained in Miami, you know.

"He saw the Latinos, the chicas, the ladies. But this game we’re in, it’s how you come back is the most important thing."

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