Promoter Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua will be fighting next in the first quarter of 2025, in May or June. First, Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) will wait for the outcome of the December 21st rematch between unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury before deciding.
Matchroom promoter Hearn told DAZN that Joshua will return in May or June. Assuming Fury gets beaten again by Usyk, Hearn will need to find a semi-soft opponent for Joshua to fight unless he wants to make the Joshua-Fury match in that dire situation. With fighters coming off losses, the match would be mocked by fans, and it wouldn’t be taken seriously.
Will Joshua vs Fury Happen Regardless of Outcomes?
You’d like to think that Joshua and Fury would choose to get a win under their belts before meeting, but I doubt it. The smell of money would be too strong for them to hold off on their match, especially if their self-confidence is completely gone.
Hearn has been delaying the decision on Joshua’s next opponent since his fifth-round knockout loss to IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on September 21st. How the young lion Dubois beat Joshua made it difficult for Hearn and AJ to insist on an immediate rematch.
When Joshua lost to Andy Ruiz Jr on June 1, 2019, AJ and Hearn agreed to fight an immediate rematch. The same is true for when Joshua lost to Usyk for the first time on September 25, 2021. This time, with Joshua getting knocked out by the 27-year-old Dubois, it’s different. Hearn and Joshua aren’t eager to run it back with Dubois. It’s just too risky.
The chances of success are dim, and it would permanently mess up the Fury fight if there ever is one. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh says a fight between AJ and Fury can still happen if one or both lose, but it would still be a bad look on the two British fighter’s parts to go into the match with either of them coming off losses.
It’s logical for Joshua to wait on the Usyk-Fury 2 rematch because the fight fans want to see is between him and Fury. That fight will bring in massive money and generate interest worldwide.
The bad news is that the 36-year-old Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) is likely to lose to WBA, WBC, and WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) on December 21st, spoiling much of the interest in a match against Joshua.
The Dubois Loss and Rematch Concerns
Dubois dropped Joshua four times, once in rounds 1, 3, 4, and 5, to get the knockout on September 21st at Wembley Stadium in London. The way Dubois obliterated Joshua would have been a bad business move on his and Hearn’s part to fight him again.
There’s too much money on the line for Joshua with the Fury match and other fights for him to sacrifice his career going up against Dubois a second time.
If Joshua were younger, he could adopt the safety-first Wladimir Klitschko style and outbox Dubois, but not at 35. He’s old to drastically change his fighting style for this match, as he’d done in his rematch against an out-of-shape Andy Ruiz on December 7, 2019.
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