Eddie Hearn has confirmed that Anthony Joshua’s next fight will likely take place in London in September.
With a host of important heavyweight bouts taking place over the next five weeks – most notably the undisputed heavyweight title fight between WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) and WBC titleholder Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18 – a decision on who Joshua will face next will come down to the whims of boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh.
Two weeks after the Usyk-Fury fight, Daniel Dubois 20-2 (19) will box Filip Hrgovic 17-0 (14) and Deontay Wilder 43-3-1 (42) will clash with Zhilei Zhang 26-2-1 (21) at the same venue.
Joshua’s next opponent could come from any of the sextet.
“Anything can happen, honestly,” Joshua’s promoter Hearn of Matchroom Boxing told Boxing Social. “There has been a lot of conversations obviously, we know that the Riyadh season card has been locked in for Los Angeles on August 3rd and also there is the possibility of that London card at Wembley in September.
“So nothing is cemented, but if that card does take place then I am sure that there is a good chance that ‘AJ’ could fight on it, against who? I don’t know.
“We will see what happens firstly on May 18th, that is the big one that everybody is looking at to see who comes through out of [Tyson] Fury and [Oleksandr] Usyk.
“Then you have got Wilder-Zhang, then you have got Hrgovic-Dubois, see what happens with the IBF title but literally anything can happen.
“You have got two things; the IBF title freeing up potentially and the allure of the Wilder fight. If Wilder comes through Zhang, which I believe he will, everyone is going to start talking about Joshua-Wilder again.
“That is definitely a fight that His Excellency likes, ‘AJ’ is up for that fight, he would of course love to win a heavyweight world title again, he would love to fight the winner of Fury-Usyk but at the moment nothing is locked in, because of all of the upcoming fights. We will see what spits out on May 18th and June 1st.”
Former two-time unified heavyweight champion Joshua says he is happy to fight whoever they put in front of him.
“Whenever they tell me there’s a date, you know I’ll be ready 100 per cent. It’s gonna be in London, Wembley Stadium,” the 34-year-old Joshua from Watford, England told talkSPORT.
“This is what I’m being told. If that’s what they say, they normally back their word so let’s go with that. Wembley, September 20 or 21.
“On June 1 in Saudi Arabia they’ve got the 5 vs 5 card. You’ve got Filip Hrgovic versus Daniel Dubois and you’ve got Zhilei Zhang versus Deontay Wilder.
“So providing one of those looks good – the one who looks the best, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh said to me, ‘I want you to fight [him].’
“What he says is, ‘In the future I want people to look back at your record and say that you took on the best.’ I said, ‘now you’re speaking my language.’
“So out of that pool, I believe that’s who I’m gonna be fighting, one of those. We’re on the same page and he’s on the same page as the fans as well.”
