With the Alexander Povetkin fight just around the corner, and Deontay Wilder waiting in the wings, Anthony Joshua has recently thrown a curveball and surprised a lot of people within the boxing community with his recent comments. 

The heavyweight fighter has recently revealed that he admires cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and would one day relish the opportunity to fight the Ukrainian should he make the jump to the heavyweight division. 

Usyk has become somewhat of a success story within the cruiserweight division, becoming only the third ever fighter to become an undisputed champion and holding all four belts. 

Since turning professional in 2013, the Ukrainian has recorded an impressive record of 15-0, with 11 of these resulting in a knockout. 

However, it appears that the cruiserweight champion will have to face ex-WBC title holder Tony Bellew before he takes on the big boys of the heavyweight division. 

The scouse boxer was a renowned fighter within the cruiserweight class, but took the decision to step up and become a heavyweight in order to fight David Haye. 

Bellew has welcomed a fight with Usyk with open arms as he took to Twitter to display his eagerness to fight the Ukrainian.

On the other hand, Usyk has also claimed that he is willing to go to England in order for this fight to take place. 

If Usyk is able to defeat Bellew, this will certainly send warning signs to heavyweights throughout the community.

However, it appears that AJ is keeping a close eye on the Ukrainian. 

Within a recent press conference, Matchroom boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said this: “Joshua wants the Usyk fight.

“He is fascinated by that kind of thing because he wants to test himself against people who he thinks are brilliant. He thinks Usyk is brilliant. He is up for it."

However, Hearn later went onto say that the Ukrainian will most likely have to fight the likes of Tony Bellew, Dillian Whyte, and Dereck Chisora before a fight with the heavyweight champion can occur.

“I think Usyk will struggle against the big boys like any cruiserweight would. Outside of Evander Holyfield and a few others, who has done it?

“Usyk’s plan is to fight Joshua and we have a plan for Usyk to get to Joshua. But he would have to go through Tony Bellew and potentially Dillian Whyte and maybe Dereck Chisora first.

“My only priority for Usyk is Tony Bellew but he has the ability to be in some huge heavyweight fights.”

Nonetheless, AJ has a number of fights that still need to take place with everybody's attention currently focused towards a match-up between Joshua and Wilder. 

However, for now, AJ will take on Povetkin in a mandatory world title fight which will take place on September 22 at Wembley Stadium.