Oleksandr Usyk more worried about son at school than Anthony Joshua

The Ukrainian meets heavyweight world champion Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday

Oleksandr Usyk has been thinking of home ahead of his fight against Anthony Joshua (Getty Images)

Oleksandr Usyk has claimed he is not thinking about Anthony Joshua ahead of their world heavyweight title fight on Saturday - and is instead more concerned about his son’s first month of school.

The undefeated Usyk faces Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, as AJ defends his IBF, WBA and WBO world titles for the first time this year.

Usyk is still fresh to the heavyweight class after making the step up from cruiserweight, where he dominated the division to become the undisputed world champion.

The 34-year-old defeated Dereck Chisora on points last October in just his second fight at heavyweight and will face the biggest test of his career in his first fight since when he comes up against Joshua’s size and power on Saturday night.

But ahead of the fight, Usyk has insisted he has spent more time thinking about his six-year-old son, Mykhailo, as he tries to settle into school back home.

Usyk told The Sun: “At the moment I don’t think about Anthony Joshua. I don’t think about what he will do, what he will use or how he will box.

“I have a little bit of timing to finish my training camp now, I might think about it then. Right now I think more about how my son feels at school because he has just started first grade and he really did not want to go and do it.

“He was saying: ‘I don’t want to go to school, dad. I am bored at school and you’re not there.’

“But everything is fine now, he seems to have calmed down. So I probably think more about that than what Anthony Joshua will do in the ring.”

Joshua, who won a gold medal alongside Usyk at the London 2012 Olympics, has claimed that his upcoming opponent is the second-toughest fight in his career, behind Usyk’s compatriot Wladimir Klitschko.

AJ is set to fight in front of a capacity crowd in the UK for the first time since 2018 when he takes on Usyk, and would move closer to setting up a long-awaited unification bout with Tyson Fury if he defends his heavyweight titles.