On Saturday night, Anthony Joshua puts his heavyweight world titles on the line against Oleksandr Usyk. Here is everything you need to know about the fight.
What is it?
A heavyweight world title fight between two of the biggest stars in world boxing as Britain's Anthony Joshua, the WBA, IBF and WBO champion, puts his belts on the line against unbeaten Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua is a two-time heavyweight world champion having reclaimed his titles in a rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia in December 2019 following his shock stoppage defeat to the Mexican-American in New York six months earlier.
Usyk, meanwhile, is regarded as one of the greatest cruiserweights in history and soon after unifying the division, made the step up to heavyweight.
When is it?
The event takes place on Saturday night with the undercard getting under way at 9pm UAE time. Joshua and Usyk are scheduled to make their ring walks at 1am Sunday morning.
Where is it?
The event will be held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - the home of Premier League football club Tottenham - in London. With UK government guidelines now permitting crowds of 100 per cent for live sport, a capacity crowd of more than 60,000 is expected to attend.
What are the professional records?
Joshua, 31, enters the ring with a professional record of 24 wins and one defeat, with 22 of his victories delivered inside the distance. His sole loss came against Ruiz at Madison Square Garden in June 2019 via a seventh round TKO. He immediately avenged that defeat with a unanimous points win over Ruiz in Diriyah.
Since then, Joshua claimed a ninth round knockout win over Bulgaria's Kubrat Pulev. Notable wins of Joshua's career include a seventh round TKO against British rival Dillian Whyte, an 11th round TKO against long-time world champion Wladamir Klitschko, a unanimous points win over Joseph Parker in a unified world title fight, and a seventh round TKO of former champion Alexander Povetkin.
Usyk will climb through the ropes with a perfect record from 18 professional fights, with 13 coming inside the distance. The 34-year-old Ukrainian operated for much of his career at cruiserweight and became only the fourth fighter in history to hold all four major belts in a division when he became the undisputed champion at 200lbs in 2018.
After a successful title defence against Tony Bellew, whom he defeated with an eighth round TKO, Usyk vacated his titles and moved up to heavyweight, where he has fought twice, defeating Chazz Witherspoon via a seventh round retirement and beating Dereck Chisora on a unanimous decision.
Both fighters are Olympic champions from the 2012 London Games. Joshua delivered gold in the super-heavyweight division and Usyk won gold in the heavyweight division.
Who is on the undercard?
As expected, the event boasts a stacked undercard, which begins at 9pm with the WBA Intercontinental middleweight title fight between Christopher Ousley and Khasan Baysangurov. That is followed by Maxim Prodan's welterweight clash with Florian Marku for the IBF International welterweight title at 10pm.
Campbell Hatton - the son of former world champion Ricky Hatton - then competes in the fourth fight of his career when he takes on Sonni Martinez at super-featherweight at 10.30pm.
Former super-middleweight world champion Callum Smith is up next when he makes his debut at light-heavyweight against Lenin Castillo, scheduled for 11pm, as the Englishman returns to the ring for his first fight since his points defeat to Saul Alvarez in December.
The undercard concludes with Laurence Okolie's first defence of his WBO cruiserweight world title when he faces the unbeaten Dilan Prasovic at 12.30am.
How to watch in the UAE?
The event will be streamed live in the UAE on Facebook via the platform's Paid Online Events feature. To watch the fights, head to the official Anthony Joshua Vs Oleksandr Usyk event page. The price is Dh36.99.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
How to help
Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.
Account name: Dar Al Ber Society
Account Number: 11 530 734
IBAN: AE 9805 000 000 000 11 530 734
Bank Name: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
