Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr: World champion feels sorry for ‘starved fans’ who want to see him fight Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury

The Brit admits to being frustrated at the lack of progress towards a superfight with either fighter as he prepares for his US debut this week

Anthony Joshua has arrived in New York city ahead of his American debut this weekend but the unified heavyweight champion admits he now ‘feels sorry’ for the fans who want to see him take on Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury.

Following Wilder’s demolition job on former Joshua victim Dominic Breazeale in 137 brutal seconds earlier this month, Joshua takes on late stand-in Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Fury, meanwhile, will face Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas on June 15 meaning the three heavyweight icons of the generation will all box within the same four-week stretch but not against each other. There is a feeling, too, that the trio’s differing broadcast alliances in America could keep them all apart for the foreseeable future.

Joshua’s world title defence against 12/1 shot Ruiz will be shown on streaming service DAZN while Wilder’s clash with Breazeale was on Showtime. That leaves Fury, whose showdown with Schwarz kicks off his new 30-month deal with ESPN.

Now AJ, the IBF, WBA and WBO champion, says he understands the frustration of the fans who want to see him take on either WBC king Wilder or his British rival – and ‘lineal’ champion – Fury.

“It’s the fans who are being starved of it,” Joshua said. “It was all about me when Wilder started calling me out two years ago.

‘What’s Joshua doing? What’s Wilder doing?’ It was all about us, great profile building.

“Wilder looked like a crazy man calling me out, Fury came back. And then nothing has happened. So now the fans are the ones getting the hard end of the stick.

“I don’t know why it’s not happening with all that talk and profile building. Figures being thrown around, dates and venues. It’s not about me anymore. I feel sorry for the people who want to see it.

“It’s wasting a lot of time and each time I fight it’s a banana skin.”

Ruiz, however, is not expected to cause a slip-up for Joshua, who has racked up a 22-0 record with 21 inside the distance since he turned professional in 2013.

But the 29-year-old has warned both Wilder and Fury that their chances of ever beating him are diminishing with every month that passes.

“Wilder and Fury are wasting their own time,” Joshua said. “They should fight me now.

“If I was them, I’d rather have it now than later. I don’t know what they are waiting for. They’re coming to the end of their careers, 10, 11 years as professionals. I’ve been doing it five years.”

Wilder was already a 30-0 professional by the time Joshua made his debut in the paid ranks back in October 2013 while Fury brought up a decade punching for pay in December.

Joshua added: “I don’t think they’re going to get much better. It’s worse for them because I have another five years honing my skills.

“I’m not the finished article yet. I’m still working towards certain things so imagine another five years or another 18 months in my bag of tricks. I’ll have a few more skills I can do. The longer they leave it, the worse it’ll be for them so they should crack on.”

Anthony Joshua on the pads with trainer Robert McCracken (Action Images via Reuters)

While Joshua has been applying the finishing touches to his preparation for Ruiz in a purpose-built, private Miami gym, the chairman of DAZN, John Skipper, is said to have had dinner with Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel about a potential mega fight.

During a subsequent interview with The Sun, Finkel claimed that Wilder will finally face Joshua in an historic fight, which will crown the first ever WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC heavyweight champion, within his next three outings.

“You don’t lose hope because you are still negotiating,” Joshua said. “I don’t think it’s Wilder I think it’s the people around him. It should be spoken of more. I feel I get made an example of.

‘Joshua’s ducking and dodging and doing this’. But if he does the same thing...

“Wilder turned down double the amount to fight me and that was a real offer from a broadcaster. It was a real contract offer from a broadcaster offering Wilder the chance to fight on DAZN.

“A contract offering him a chance to fight on his own, one warm-up fight, then me. And he could have fought me straight away if he wanted, there was that option too. It’s baffling to know why he didn’t take it after all the talk.

“It’s not like I’m offering it because I think it’s easy. I want to challenge myself against the best. Madison Square Garden is also an iconic venue, Wembley is too. And an opportunity to fight for all the belts.

“What more is there than all that? If it’s me, five or 10 years from now and I had the opportunity to become undisputed, where else am I going?

“I’ve done it for 10 years, I’ve done my defences, I’ve done my learning. Now it’s time to stamp my name in history. I’d be chomping for that. I want it after 20-odd fights. He’s had 40-odd fights and five more years. I don’t know where he’s going.

Anthony Joshua puts his belts on the line vs Ruiz Jr (PA)

“It has to happen because we’re the same era, same time, same division, it’s been spoken about for so long, yeah, so it has to happen.”

Making a statement in America on Saturday will only crank up the fervour for Joshua and Wilder to meet in what would become the richest heavyweight fight of all time.

In many ways, his encounter with Ruiz in Manhattan is a PR exercise en route to The Big One, not that Joshua sees it as thus.

“I think there’s no PR like fighting,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to Friday night and rolling into Saturday morning and then going out there and doing what I love to do.”