ES COVERAGE

EXCLUSIVE

Every day, for the rest of the week, we'll be hearing from AJ himself as he returns to write his big-fight diary for the Evening Standard.

Here's the first one!

Photo: PA

It’s like a power struggle in the heavyweight division at the moment. But, when it’s all said and done, I won’t be the man down the pub telling war stories how “I was the lineal champ”.



I am confident that I am the best, I’ve had the hardest fights and I’ve got the stats to back that up. I’ll prove that again on Saturday night.

For all the noise around other fighters, ever since my mandatory fight with Alexander Povetkin was announced, I’ve looked no further than the challenge ahead of me at Wembley this weekend.



The guy deserves a lot of respect. He’s an Olympic gold medallist, is very experienced and has a great knockout threat. God willing, I will beat him and then April 13 is all booked. Wembley is there — a date and a location — it’s just the person who wants to step up and fight me.



Deontay Wilder and I have been negotiating for a long time, since after my fight with Carlos Takam. We boxers know our worth and our teams negotiate hard. No one is to blame for the fight not materialising, it’s just the way it goes sometimes.



I know I would never dodge a fight, I have always stepped up. Charles Martin called me out, he wanted to fight me. So, I stepped up and fought.Wladimir Klitschko wanted to fight and I fought him. I was ready for Wilder and I still am ready for him if he wants to do it come April.



I do, however, think it’s good that Wilder and Tyson Fury are fighting in the interim. It’s what the division needs. A lot of the pressure has been on me to fight everyone so it’s good for heavyweight boxing that these guys are going up against each other.



I think Wilder will win, he’s a top-level fighter and he’s active. It’s hard when you’ve not been active, like Fury. As a fighter, I think you need learning fights after a three-year lay-off.



Of course, I would like to fight both men but I don’t need them, they don’t define me, I define me. Wilder has a good style, he knows how to come under and throw a shot round the body or head. Fury, though, I want him at his best. I’ve said before, let him get over his issues, let him come back and get fit again.



If he thinks he’s ready, he’s ready. The way I see it is, we are in the same division, the same era, so eventually there’s no way we cannot fight at some point.



But it’s the Povetkin fight first and it’s been the same for me in the build-up, Sheffield acting like home from home for me. I’ve spent the best part of eight years going to and from the English Institute of Sport, firstly as an amateur preparing for the Olympics and more recently as a professional readying myself for each fight.



Although it’s somewhere I feel comfortable and settled, it’s also a place that when I’m there, I know I’m there to work. My coach, Rob McCracken, has installed this mentality into me and that is why I come up here and shut myself away. All that matters, all that I have to focus on, is the upcoming fight and working to a schedule that will see me improve and develop from my previous fight.



In my last fight, I went 12 rounds with Joseph Parker. It was the first time I’ve been the distance as a professional and, although I knew I could be a 12-round fighter, it was good to prove that to the rest of the world.



People think I’m the king of destruction, I can fight and knock people out, but they always questioned if I can box. After the Parker fight, no one could say that anymore. It was about showing that, at a championship level, I can outmanoeuvre and outthink a fighter.



By beating Parker I claimed his WBO heavyweight title, adding to my WBA, IBF and IBO belts, to take me one step closer to unifying the division.



The one other belt, the WBC title, belongs to Wilder and I want it. For now, though, that can wait.