Johnny Nelson believes Anthony Joshua deserves more respect from boxing fans for taking on someone like Oleksandr Usyk.

Joshua was comfortably outclassed by Usyk back in September, losing his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO world titles in the process.

Their rematch takes place in just under a month's time at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia on August 20.

Usyk is the favourite to retain his belts but Joshua is still dangerous, as he proved in the first fight, and in training videos which have been released since.

And former cruiserweight world champion Nelson, who will be working the event on the night, revealed he has every faith his compatriot will get the job done the second time around.

Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "Anthony Joshua had that crossover appeal when you've got people interested in boxing that wouldn't bat an eyelid at it.

ALL THE INFO: Here is everything you need to know about Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk 2

Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk will rematch in Saudi Arabia on August 20

"You're looking at his style and what he's done and there's always people that say 'well this opponent wasn't that', he wasn't given the credit he deserved. This fight will be that fight.

"Remember, he's done it twice now. If Anthony Joshua goes in there and beats him, the next person will be like 'yeah, but you've not beaten Tyson Fury or not beaten Deontay Wilder'.

"Because he's gone in there with one of the best fighters in the world and he's going to go in there and beat him, if he does that where do the questions come from then?"

Meanwhile, Joshua has claimed that he 'never got that respect' when he was the unified heavyweight champion of the world.

He told The Sun: “I feel like I never got that respect.

“When I came into this division it was whack and I thought ‘let me get in this game and take on anyone and everyone, it doesn’t matter who’.

“Maybe it was because I was British that nobody was respecting my thing.

“I wanted to bring the heavyweight division to Great Britain and show that we are solid.

“Because I think that sometimes people just think we drink tea and eat biscuits and sit with the Queen.

“I used to have people say things like 'yo AJ, dawg, what’s the Queen like?’

“I felt I was not getting looked upon as someone who was a dominant force in the heavyweight division.

“People seemed to just think I was Anthony Joshua who liked looking in the mirror and had an ego”.