Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Anthony Joshua's seemingly inexorable journey to being undisputed heavyweight champion of the world has gotten a little bumpy over the last two years.
First there was the loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. that no one saw coming at Madison Square Garden in June 2019, least of all Joshua after 22 straight wins to open his professional career.
Then came a pandemic that has limited Joshua -- at his physical prime in his early 30s -- to one fight since the start of 2020.
And, most recently, there was the legal ruling which scuppered the proposed Aug. 14 fight against Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia that would have given one of the Britons every belt in boxing's marquee division.
That legacy-defining fight against Fury is still on the table -- and with it a payday of as much as US$100 million each -- but it's endangered by an opponent Joshua must dispatch in the meantime to retain his WBA, IBF and WBO belts.
Oleksandr Usyk is the WBO mandatory challenger who arrived in London with an unbeaten professional record, a supreme technique and an eccentric personality ahead of Saturday's fight that's being televised by the DAZN streaming service and will be watched by 60,000 fans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
A unified world cruiserweight champion-turned-heavyweight, Usyk is only the second southpaw Joshua has faced in eight years as a professional and comes armed with advice from compatriot Wladimir Klitschko -- the last Ukrainian to hold a world heavyweight title before his loss to Joshua in 2017, also in London.
As far as replacement fights go, this has to be up there with the most treacherous -- even if Usyk has only fought twice at heavyweight.
"He is good -- let's give credit where it's due," Joshua said on a video call this week. "In boxing, we all have big egos and we try to suppress people. Let's lift him up. ... His accolades would say he's one of the best fighters I've fought in my career."
Their paths to boxing's highest stage are eerily similar.
Both won gold medals within a day of each other at the London Olympics in 2012 -- Joshua at super-heavyweight, Usyk at heavyweight.
Both turned professional in 2013.
Both became world champion for the first time in 2016, though Usyk was in the cruiserweight division that he went on to unify inside two years.
His step up to heavyweight has been underwhelming mainly because of the pandemic that has limited him to two under-the-radar fights -- Chazz Witherspoon retired in the seventh round of a fight in Chicago in October 2019 and British slugger Derek Chisora was beaten on points a year later -- but Usyk is a superstar in Ukraine and renowned for his footwork, movement and reflexes.
It's his punching power, now he is with boxing's big men, that raises the biggest concerns. He is giving up height (7.6 centimeters), reach (10.2 centimeters) and most likely size to Joshua.
"Everybody talks about who is bigger, who is smaller," Usyk said. "But nothing bothers me."
Certainly Joshua has more to lose heading into his latest big-stadium fight, especially if his head isn't in the right space after the scrapping of the Fury fight. He insists it is but the last time his plans were interrupted by a change of an opponent, he lost to Ruiz Jr. -- a replacement for Jarrell Miller -- in his only fight so far in the United States and the only defeat on his professional resume.
Joshua rediscovered the thrill of a brutal knockout when he floored Kubrat Pulev in December to secure a ninth-round win in the first defense of his second spell as champion, but he likes to see himself as more of a thinker in the ring these days. That ring craft will be vital against Usyk, and Joshua has slimmed down for the fight, most likely to match his opponent's speed.
Fighting a southpaw has given him an added motivation and challenge. And that's something Joshua says he needs at this stage of his career.
"I've gone back to learning about your foot positioning, your hand positioning," he said. "I have my notepad about what I've learnt each session. I go back, read it, study it. I want to improve."
Being denied a Fury-Joshua unification fight would be a shame for those boxing fans, especially in Britain, who have been hyping it as one of the most anticipated bouts of this generation. Fury, of course, still has to meet his side of the bargain by beating Deontay Wilder next month in the third fight of their trilogy.
As for Usyk, he is looking to emulate Evander Holyfield and David Haye in being an ex-cruiserweight champ with a world heavyweight title. It'd most likely be a win on points if that is to happen.
"Anthony, how are you? I'm coming for you, Anthony," Usyk said in a spooky voice and broken English after his win over Chisora.
He has his shot, though Joshua feels it might be too big a leap.
"I wouldn't want to be in the ring with me," he said. "If I was Usyk looking across the ring, I swear to God I wouldn't want to be in the ring with someone like me. Good luck to him on Saturday."
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, a key terminal for the entry of humanitarian aid that was closed over the weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.