Eddie Hearn has confirmed they are only looking at two opponents for Anthony Joshua’s ‘big fight’ in December and that he might not be out again in this summer.
Joshua made a winning return to the ring this month against Jermaine Franklin and ever since speculation has been rife as to who the former champion may face next.
The original plan was to see the 33 year-old fight in July against a similar level of opponent to Franklin, then see him set up to take on one of the top contenders in December. That may be still be the case but Hearn has now revealed that it will depend on the deal for the end of year fight.
Speaking to iFL TV, the promoter confirmed that AJ will be fighting either Wilder or Fury in the Middle East.
“For AJ, one thing’s for sure his big fight, and it will come in the Middle East will be in December and that will be Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder.
That’s what we’re planning. I will be going out next week to meet people to discuss AJ’s fight in December.”
On whether Joshua will have a fight in between, the Matchroom boss says the people involved in the deal wouldn’t want to take that risk.
“Our focus is to get that mega fight in December over the line, there is no official decision in terms of whether AJ would fight in July, some of that might come around the deal or the decision or the completion of that fight in December.
I would quite like to see him fight, I think he would quite like to fight in July, but right now he’s not in camp for a July fight, we’re focusing on getting the December fight over the line, which is a fight of huge proportion and then we’ll make a decision on the July fight in the coming weeks.
I think the people who will be involved in the December fight will not want him to fight in July, because obviously it’s a fight of such huge proportion that you wouldn’t want to take the risk of committing that money with the possibility of defeat, injury, whatever it could be.”
Plans of a four man tournament of AJ vs Wilder and Fury vs Usyk was also confirmed by both Hearn and Malik Scott today and would see both fights happen on the same night.
How realistic it is for four huge stars to all agree terms to fight on the same card remains to be seen.