According to former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, he was very close to announcing his decision to fight IBF, IBO, WBA world champion Anthony Joshua in a planned fall rematch.

"I love boxing. I love its fans, its challenges and life chances so much. Klitschko vs Joshua 2 is on. I'll see you at ringside" - that was the message Klitschko had put together and planned to issue on social media, but it was never released.

Instead, Klitschko announced his retirement from the sport after suffering two consecutive defeats. At 40 years old and coming off one of his best career performances, he felt the moment was right to walk away from the sport.

For Klitschko, who wanted a measure of revenge in a rematch, it was a tough call to pass on taking the rematch.

"It was the most difficult decision," Klitschko told Tony Mogan of IB Times UK. "But I am so happy. You couldn't know about it before [whether you will be happy with your decision], you know about it later on when your decision is made, a couple of months after whether it was right or wrong. I would say it was right. I did maybe an illogical thing. But I stepped out on my terms. Not any else's. But my terms. I think my stock went up, not down. And I was surprised that was possible."

Back in April, before a crowd of 90,000 fans at Wembley in London, Joshua had early success and put Klitschko down in the fifth, but the veteran rallied in the same round to get Joshua in some trouble - and then dropped the champion hard in the sixth. Klitschko took over the fight for the next few rounds, but Joshua rallied in the championship rounds to drop Klitschko twice more, in the eleventh, to force the stoppage.

Klitschko holds no grudge. He hopes Joshua, now 20-0 with 20 knockouts, continues winning and finding more success.

"I wish for him to win in any other fight that comes up because the more he wins, the more I shine. Because if I lose, I am going to lose to the best man, I just want to be proud of that. He is carrying the flag accordingly," Klitschko said.

"If I were able to rewind time back and have influence over the decision, for example if I knocked him out in the sixth round and won the titles back, it would have been nice for my ego. And my ego is big. It would be nice. But I would never change it. I am where I am right now and I have experienced what I have experienced because I have had a lot of success and just to know this other side where I can win by losing; I would pay any price for it."

"I think Joshua was born that night. He recouped, he recovered, and he fought back. He was really challenged. That was his birth. There is always a circle of life. I have seen family members passing away and family members being born so I understand there is a circle of life. You have to accept it. You have to support it if is right. That's what I am doing."