In accordance with his promoter Eddie Hearn, former two-time heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua is at present “in a very good place,” this even though the final time we noticed AJ field he was fairly brutally KO’d by Daniel Dubois. However Hearn, in talking with BBC Sport, mentioned Joshua will likely be taking a giant combat subsequent outing, both a rematch with Dubois, or a combat with Tyson Fury.
“It’s bizarre saying it after a knockout defeat, however AJ is definitely in a very good place,” Hearn mentioned. “We’re going to combat Dubois or Fury subsequent. That’s it. No different curiosity or warm-up. AJ desperately needs revenge however the one difficulty is timing. For the rematch to occur in February, coaching camp must begin in a few weeks. It will be irritating if we made the Dubois combat and Fury gained (the rematch with Oleksandr Usyk). Then we’re sitting there going, ‘Hold on a minute, we’re combating Dubois, however we may have fought Fury in Might for the largest combat in boxing.’ Win or lose, we will combat Fury subsequent summer season. But when he wins, AJ fights him for the world title.”
This all sound nice for Joshua, however issues could not work out the best way Hearn suggests. For one factor, if Fury does beat Usyk of their rematch, there may be reportedly a contract in place for the 2 to combat once more in a rubber-match. In the meantime, Frank Warren has mentioned Dubois will certainly combat in February, and that if it’s not towards Joshua will probably be towards one other top-five contender.
After which there may be the matter of what occurs if Fury loses, and badly, within the Usyk rematch – would possibly Fury resolve to name it a profession and retire? It’s potential. For Joshua, it appears it’s going to come down as to whether or not he goes forward with the dangerous Dubois rematch in February, or if he waits and sees what occurs in Saudi Arabia on December 21.
But when Joshua doesn’t safe the February combat with Dubois after which sees Fury both defeat Usyk after which signal on to combat the Ukrainian a 3rd time, or if Fury loses in December after which retires, Joshua will likely be out of luck so far as getting both of the 2 huge fights Hearn says will occur for him in his subsequent ring outing.
At this stage, all we followers can do is watch and see how all issues heavyweight pan out. However there’s a good likelihood Joshua’s subsequent combat may very well be towards somebody aside from Dubois or Fury.