It turns out his two young sons, Mikhail and Kirill, were too. Never mind boxing, they had some fresh meat for the basketball court.

“They will always say to me ‘hey papa, we want to play with AJ,'” Usyk tells The Ring. “But it’s up to me to say ‘no, AJ, go and rest.’

“But Kirill will ask AJ to play basketball and he will say, ‘Of course.’ I’ll say, ‘Hey Kirill!’ but AJ will tell me not to worry, we can go and play. I’m happy with that. They like having him in camp.”

Having worked with five different coaches in the first 11 years of his professional career, two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua has never had a problem seeking pastures new for training camp.

Even so, his decision to leave Ben Davison and relocate to sunny Spain came straight out of left-field given the history with Usyk, who relieved Joshua of his world heavyweight titles back in September 2021 and then retained them in their rematch 11 months later.

His first outing as part of Team Usyk ended in a sixth round knockout of Jake Paul in Miami and Joshua has since returned to Spain as he plots his path towards a showdown with Tyson Fury later this year. Usyk, meanwhile, is set to face kickboxing icon Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids in Giza on May 23 so the pair’s training camps have been running concurrently.

“I never imagined I’d be fighting in Egypt,” Usyk admits. “Turki Alalshikh said, ‘Hey, listen, we have a guy who is an undisputed world champion in kickboxing. You're undisputed in boxing. How do you feel about you two fighting together at the Pyramids?’ I said, ‘Hmm, it's a great idea.’

“Now I feel good and I’m very happy to have Anthony with me in camp. Sometimes we train together, not all the time but maybe two, three times a week. But Anthony has sparring early and then I will come and train later once Anthony finishes. So when I start, Anthony goes to rest.

“We might spend time together in the swimming pool or whatever but we see each other every day like ‘Hey champ, how are you?’ Sometimes we speak after training. We have a big house, so maybe we drink tea and I speak with AJ.”

The Ring's champion Usyk, who holds the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, has made it clear he believes Joshua can become undisputed in 2027, once his own career is over. During a recent appearance on "Inside The Ring," Usyk outlined the three-fight plan which will lead him to retirement. It’s Verhoeven first, then the winner of the Fabio Wardley-Daniel Dubois clash on May 9, then, finally, a trilogy fight with Tyson Fury.

The Gypsy King had hung up his gloves in the wake of his second consecutive defeat to Usyk in December 2024 but returned to the ring on Saturday with a win against Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Although he was not necessarily back to his best, it was a clear indication that the Fury circus is back on the road.

“I watched the first six rounds but then I went to church to pray,” he said of Fury-Makhmudov, which was the main event of the first British show to be broadcast live on Netflix.

“I heard Tyson say that he maybe wants a trilogy with Usyk. I'm ready, but not until after the fight with Rico because now my focus is only on May 23.

“But Tyson is a crazy man. He keeps coming back, it's four or five times now that Tyson has come back. But he’s a needed player in the game.

“I think all the heavyweights now have one or maybe two years before the change of era. Then comes Wardley, Itauma, young guys. Then my era can go and rest, play soccer, play golf and drink beer.”

Fury’s eldest son Prince worked alongside him during his most recent training camp, which took place in Thailand. But while that pair insist the young teen will be pursuing a career in boxing, over in Spain, Usyk is not so sure about his own sons. For now, he is happy for them to be shooting hoops with Joshua and not worrying about world titles.

“Listen, it’s hard,” Usyk says. “My young guy Mikhail said, 'Hey, Papa, I want to go to boxing training.'

"But I said, 'Wait, please.' Because I started at 15 years old and they are now 11 and 13, so maybe they've got another two years to wait.

“Now, for me, first, it's about education; school, education, language and sport, too, because they're training judo. It’s good because I know this sport and it has many acrobatic elements. It's not dangerous like in boxing, you cannot get punched in the head.

“For me it’s not like you must be a champion or a sportsman. I tell them that if they want, I'll help, but I won't force them. I won't force you and say you must be an Olympic champion, a world champion. No, no. If you want to be, I don't know, an economic designer, or a chef, no problem, I'll help you, no problem.”

For now, his helping hand has extended to Joshua, so his path may cross with Fury without even needing to arrange their own trilogy fight. “Fury v AJ?” Usyk says. “That’s an AJ win. Hey, Greedy Belly, where are you? AJ will beat you.”